


She’s All That

by Bellatrix_Wannabe_89



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - She's All That (1999) Fusion, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Minor Podrick Payne/Sansa Stark, Minor Robert Baratheon/Cersei Lannister, No Incest, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Teen Rom Com Vibes, happy endings, no abuse though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 06:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21369988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellatrix_Wannabe_89/pseuds/Bellatrix_Wannabe_89
Summary: The popular and handsome defecto ruler of Kingslanding High Jaime Lannister makes a bet after a breakup with his empress of the school girlfriend Cersei; he can turn any girl into prom queen in just six weeks. Any girl- including the obscenely tall and ugly Brienne Tarth who, OBVIOUSLY, he could never actually fall in love with in real life...
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 90
Kudos: 313





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I have Resuscitate and then I have the WCA sequel and the WCA AU but this will be a quick little 11 chapter fluffy teen rom com fic that I could not get out of my head, everything’s planned out, y’all will probably get at least two chapters a week... It’ll be all good, I promise lol.

Jaime Lannister looked good.

More importantly then looking good, Jaime  _ knew _ he looked good. His golden blonde curls were just the right amount of careless mess, his bright emerald eyes shone with a smugness that could only come from being one of the richest boys who walked these sacred hall of Kingslanding High, straight perfect teeth behind lips that always wore a smirk, backpack casually tossed over one shoulder, and a letterman jacket worn over fitted clothes that showed a hint of the well formed muscles earned from years and years of football.

When Jaime Lannister looked good, he looked  ** _good. _ ** In fact there was only one thing that could have possibly made him look possibly better than he did right now as he ‘casually’ swaggered through the parking lot of his high school, and she would be here soon. 

“Holy shit look what the cat dragged in!” 

“Get over here, Lannister!”

Jaime smirked as he nodded towards the people who called out to him and walked over to the fellow seniors who were leaning against the metal sign designating it as the seniors parking area. 

“What’s going on?” he greeted his two best friends, first with a quick hug to Jon Snow, the curly haired solemn faced Northmen and then a friendly hand shake given to Euron Greyjoy; a tall and broad handsome senior with shoulder length dark hair and pale blue eyes who had been his oldest rival since they argued over who would get a turn on the swings in pre-K recess. “Good to see some friendly faces.”

“Oh I’m sure you had some friendly faces when you were in the Vale,” Euron smirked as the three of them began walking from the parking lot into the school, the newly arrived senior putting his best effort into looking as he always did; effortlessly cool and succeeding without a hitch. 

Jaime rolled his eyes to the clear heavens above them. “I told you, it was just skiing with my father and brother. Although while I was there I was able to take a tour of the Eyrie.” His face lit up with joy, a true joy, not the manufactured artifice he wore most of the time. “Did you know that in 4300 BC the first Andels landed in the vale from Essos, and it-.”

“Yeah yeah, boring ass history no one but you gives a shit about, yo Margaery!” Euron shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Get your fine flowery ass over here!”

“Well when you ask so nicely…” the curly brown haired beauty said, her usually coyly honeyed voice dripping with sarcasm as she, along with one out of her two closest friends, walked over to the boys. 

To Margaery’s left stood a tall girl with striking copper hair, pale ivory skin and blue eyes. Sansa Stark was a Northman (and Jon’s cousin) in name only, having grown up in Kingslanding most of her life, and a life of privilege and romance had left her blind and naive in one eye, believing in true love and chivalry and all the knightly ideals from a bygone era (why she thought she might found that when she dated Tyrion for a short while was beyond Jaime but to each their own…)

Euron wrapped his arm around Margaerys waist and pulled her in close, planting a wet kiss on her cheek that she promptly wiped away. 

“Hi, Jaime,” Margaery greeted with a flirty little wave and wink that he barely acknowledged.

“Hey, Marg. Have you guys seen Cersei?”

Sansa blushed crimson while Margaery cleared her throat, looking at anywhere but him. “I- You- I don’t- who?”

“Cersei Lyons? My girlfriend?”

She pushed a brown wave behind her ear. “Oh. Oh uh no, no I haven’t... Why?”

Jaime cocked a golden brow at her. “Maybe because I haven’t heard from her once since you guys left for Dorne on spring break?” Sansa opened her mouth and closed it, sharing a guilty look with Margaery before they turned back to an increasingly nervous Jaime. “What?”

Before either could answer the sea of students parted and though it came a light as bright as a western sunrise. Golden curls were pinned perfectly back without a single lock out of place, dazzling green eyes sneered and snarked, a curvy thin body that men would kill to see was barely covered in expensive short skirts and low cut tops and a face that women would die to have was expertly made up by the most expensive products and makeup money could buy. 

Cersei Lyons was a legend, an almost otherworldly beauty. Every guy wanted be with her and every girl wanted to be her, and more importantly she knew it, taking advantage of that fact whenever she could. Cersei was the Maiden made flesh and she was all Jaime’s since their senior year started.

“Hey you,” Jaime purred, standing up to take her in his arms and kiss her but instead she put her well manicured hands on his chest and pushed him back slightly. She took his hands in hers and smiled at him; sweet and sad yet somehow patronizing all at once. 

“Hi, Jaime. Listen we need to talk. In private.”

No no. They didn’t talk in private. They hardly talked at all to be honest. His heart began racing uncontrollable. “Why? Whats going on?” 

Instead of saying anything she took his hand and led him away from the parking area. When he turned to look back at his friends he saw Margaery lean in close and whisper something to Euron who promptly pointed at the retreating couple and laughed out loud while Margaery frowned at Jaime, brown eyes a mix of pity and guilt.

He and Cersei sat down on one of the marble benches outside the front entrance to the school. Cersei immediately grabbed her phone and began playing with it while Jaime stared expectantly, his heart pounding faster and faster against his chest every moment. After a while Cersei ser the phone down, looking up sat him like she was surprised he was still there. 

“Okay so… I’m really really really sorry, but…” Cersei shrugged. “It’s just not working for me anymore.”

“What isn’t?”

“Us?” She motioned between them. “This?”

A heaviness settled into his chest. His lungs didn’t seem to want to expand, and he blinked once, twice, three times as he struggled to comprehend her words. “So you… you’re… you’re breaking- we’re breaking up?” His voice was surprisingly calm and flat.

“That’s what ‘its not working out anymore’ means right?”

“But… I don’t-... wh- Cersei why?” He felt his anger starting to simmer over. “What the hell happened in Dorne?”

“Nothing! Just… Okay so we were at this club and Margaery’s brother meets this guy and ends up taking him back to his hotel. The next day he invites Loras and us to a house party his brothers throwing, and guess who  _ that _ is? Robert Baratheon!”

“...Who?”

Cersei scoffed, raising a perfectly manicured brow at him. “Seriously? Robert Baratheon? Great Games champion powerlifter? He got banned from the village for throwing the bed out the window, he got drunk the night before the games and vomited on camera during his turn? Ringing a bell?”

_ Oh Gods!  _ “Him?! Cersei, you’re hooking up with that loser?”

“He is not a loser!” Cersei snapped. “Okay he’s rich and tall and big and dark and gorgeous.” Jaime wanted to either slap or kiss that wistful smile off her beautiful face. “He’s the strongest man I’ve ever met.” She looked over at Jaime. “And the tallest.”

Jaime Bowes his head, green eyes staring at the crack in the sidewalk, the only flaw in an otherwise pristine cold slab of concrete. Cersei was still speaking, something about the two of them going to prom together, talking about a stupid promise they made in middle school that they’d go together anyway, that she wouldn’t let him show up alone and how it was only appropriate for the king and queen to go together but he barely heard her.

“Besides,” she said when he finally lifted his head back up. “Did you honestly think I’d still be dating you once I left for college?” When he didn’t answer she clicked her tongue, dazzling eyes full of obnoxious pity. “Oh my Gods Jaime you did?” She laid a soft hand on his cheek and he yanked his face away. “That is so sweet.” 

Cersei kissed him on the cheek and then without another look back she stood up and walked away leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Twenty minutes later he was still sitting there. The bell had rung but he hadn’t moved, which made him even more upset seeing as how his first class was AP Targaryen dynasty history which was one of his favorites. He stayed there until the second class of the day before he finally found the strength to get up and head into school.

She broke with him. Cersei broke up with him. The woman he thought he’d be with the rest of his life broke up with him because of some idiot whose most well known for puking on a national stage and embarrassing the Stormlands. He thought they would be together forever, she had dropped a total bombshell on him.

Well… okay, maybe he should have seen it coming when every photo on her Ravengram page was of heavily made up and edited photos of her without a single one of Jaime while his was full of the two of them along with cheese romantic captions. Maybe the fact he remembered they shared the same birthday and put aside his own plans to take her out while Cersei couldn’t be bothered to get him a simple gift should have tipped him off. Maybe when he said ‘I love you’ after four months and she responded with an ‘aw Jaime’ and a peck on the cheek his heart was smashed in two but still; he was sure they would have been together forever!

What was worse was by the fourth class of the day it seemed the entire school had known. He was met with pitying glances, barely contained snickers, and not one but eight different girls of various degrees of hotness had come up and asked him out now that he was single.

But what was worse, what was the absolute worst, was at the end of the day when he met up with Jon and Euron, the former sympathetic and the latter unable to stop his laughter, and headed to the parking lot where they saw Cersei, moaning as she pinned some large behemoth of a man up against a large yellow SUV with a painted yellow stag on the hood while he pawed at her ass. The man, lean and fierce and black bearded with stormy blue eyes, looked up from the crock of her neck that he had buried his face into and met Jaimes eyes, giving the younger man a wink and a nod before he went back to sucking at her neck.

“Who the hell does that bitch think she is?!” Jaime barked, spitting at the ground. “She thinks she’s the only one who can get a new guy? I could fuck any girl in this school!”

Jon raised a dark colored brow. “Well... I mean yeah but there’s only one Cersei Lyons.”

“Bullshit. Okay she is totally replaceable.”

Euron rolled his eyes to the clear sky above him. “Yeah ‘bullshit’, you’re the biggest damn idiot in this city if you think that Cersei’s replaceable. She’s the queen of the whole damn school; every guy wants to fuck her, every straight girl wants to be her, and every gay chick wants to be her AND nail her.”

“She is. In 307 AC-.” He ignored the annoyed groans of his friends. “There was a Queen, Daenerys Targaryen. Shortest reign in history, wasn’t even coronated. Now history books will tell you how she blew up Kingslanding with her dragon because she had lost everyone and felt she had no choice. She’s been revered as a leader, a feminist icon for centuries… but you strip away all the beauty, all the iconology, and all the dramatics behind her story; you’re left with a girl who murdered tens of thousands of people with a nuclear weapon all because she had a bad day. It’s the same with Cersei. You strip away all the attitude, all the makeup, all the wealth; you got a D student with a great rack.”

Jaime glanced around the parking lot and pointed to a small slender girl walking to her car. “Okay take her for example. She’s short, got a halfway decent ass; got that classic freefolk thing going on… But, you get her made over, put her in a dress, give her the right boyfriend, BAM; in six weeks  _ she’s _ the one being crowned prom queen and Cersei Lannister is a nameless beauty in the yearbook.”

Jaime should have known when he saw that mischievous glint in Euron’s eye that he should have walked away. But instead he just crossed his arms over his chest and returned the sly smirk. 

“You’re serious?”

“I am.”

“You’re wrong. As usual… but do you wanna prove me wrong?”

“Guys,” Jon said cautiously, glancing between his two friends. “Guys come on. Euron, the man’s heart is broken.”

“No it isn’t,” Jaime barked.

“There ya go, Snow, he’s fine…Apart from the fact he’s about to be on the losing end of a wager.”

The smug look in Eurons eyes was contagious. “What’s the bet?”

“I pick the girl. Then you have six weeks to turn her into the prom queen.”

“That sounds like the plot of a late 90’s teen flick,” Jon grumbled before raising his voice. “Euron come on, he isn’t-.”

Jaime stuck out his hand, pursing his lips as the blue eyed man snickered while he shook it. “You’re on.”

Euron grinned, clapping him on the shoulder. “Let’s go shopping.”

Jaime followed him out of the parking lot watching as Euron and Jon eyed every girl who passed on by. The curly haired Northman nodded to a girl with fiery red curls sitting cross legged on the ground, hands pressed on a large white tree. “What about her?”

“Nah, redheads are hot no matter how weird they are, way too easy.”

He pointed towards another girl with silver hair and pale grey eyes. “I heard she burnt her last boyfriend alive at her old school.”

Euron shook his head. “She looks Valerian and exoticism just add points. No we need someone whose a real train wreck, someone who has absolutely no chance. Someone like…” Jaime saw the malice in his expression, saw his lips curl upwards into a cruel sneer as someone walking towards them caught his eye, someone not easily missed (no matter how hard she tried to make herself smaller.) “Someone like Brienne Tarth.”

Jaime’s eyes went wide, whipping his head from the obscenely tall blonde senior back to his supposed friend who could barely choke back his laugh. “Brienne Tarth?! No! No no no, absolutely not!”

“Hey we made a bet, right Jon!” Euron insisted.

“This is between you two,” Jon said, biting his lip to keep from grinning. 

“Oh come on!” Jaime shouted, watching as she popped the trunk to a rather beat up looking pale blue car and threw her bag inside. “Brienne’s not even human, she’s- she’s a beast! She’s a big ugly mute beast! No one could win with her!”

Euron shrugged. “Maybe you shouldn’t have made the bet then.” 

Jaime groaned, putting his hand in his face for a moment before he pulled it away just in time to see her retrieve a sword from the trunk. “Who the hell carries a sword in their car?!” Day 

“She’s on the swordsman team,” Jon told him while they watched her head back into school. “My cousin Aryas on it too, it’s like fencing but you get to use a more traditional sword.”

“I know what the swordsman team does, Jon! Euron come on, pick anyone else! Anyone else but that freak of nature and I’ll do it!”

The look in his eye told Jaime all he needed to know. His shoulders slumped, his eyes cast downward, and he barely flinched when Euron clapped him on the shoulder. “If I were you I wouldn’t waste my time arguing. Because if Brienne Tarth is gonna be Prom Queen I’d say you have your work cut out for you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Jaime sighed as he entered the gym to the sound of blunted steel clanging against blunted steel, bag slung over his shoulder. He bypassed the students practicing and headed for the bleachers, sitting down on the lowest level.

The beast was easy to find. She was the tallest one out there on the gym floor and she also had the only distinction to be the only swordsman ( _ swordwoman?) _ going three on one. She moved fast, her sword whipping through the air so fast it was almost a blur as she parried and struck and blocked her opponents moves, letting out a loud audible grunt with every swing.

_ She’s good _ , he conceded after watching her for a bit. Jaime had wanted to be on the swordsman team when he was in primary school but his father refused to entertain the notion and wanted his son in a more ‘traditional’ sport, which was how ten years later he found himself first string quarterback on the football team. 

Brienne wasn’t the fastest swordsman alive, but she was powerful, and she also knew how to tire out her partners before she went in for the kill. With a fancy bit of footwork she thrust the point of her sparring sword in his chest before she twisted herself around and landed a sharp blow to the side of his neck, barely missing the small strip of exposed skin his pads didn’t cover, and then spun around and slammed the blunted edge into her last opponents side and dropped him like a hot coal.

_ She’s  _ ** _very_ ** _ good… _

Jaime watched as her coach hurried over to her, grinning ear to ear. He couldn’t hear the conversation but he saw Brienne nodding along before a crimson blush overwhelmed her cheeks and she quickly bowed her head. After the coach walked away she squared off against a new opponent, bowed, and then she was fighting again. Upswing, side-slash, overhand, faster and faster, looking far more like a professional fighter than a high school student. Jaime would have lied if he said he wasn’t impressed by her skills. 

When practice was over he stood up from the bleachers and walked, or more appropriately swaggered, over to the tall blonde who took a long drink of water from a bottle and pushed back sweaty straw colored lank hair from her face.

“Hey Brienne,” Jaime greeted with what he knew to be a charming smile, one that made all the girls melt at the sight of it. 

But she just looked at him with a blank face. “Can I help you?”

“I actually wanted to help you,” he purred at her. “You see I was wondering-.”

“No thanks,” she muttered, casting her gaze downwards and pushing past him. 

For the longest time Jaime stood there frozen. Had he just been blown off? Did Brienne Tarth, the great lumbering beast, actually blow off Jaime Lannister, the king of Kingslanding High? First Cersei breaks up with him and then the ugliest girl in school won’t even give him the time of day.

What in the Seven Hell’s was going on with the world?!

He turned to find her but she was already out of the gym and heading into the locker room.

Well… That was a bust. But Lannister’s knew better than to give up so easily. Jaime headed out to where he saw her put her bag in her car and leaned against her car as cool and careless as he could appear, arms crossed against his chest. 

Ten minutes later he was flipping through his phone, ignoring the texts from Cersei asking if it would be alright if Robert could use his Netflix password, when he heard someone, not just someone but her, ask him what he was doing.

Jaime looked up from the screen and smiled that oh so devilishly handsome smile as Brienne and another boy, a shorter student with brown hair and brown eyes and the dorkiest smile Jaime was sure he had ever seen, by her side. Her short hair was still damp from her shower, and her baggy clothes did the already non-existent curves no favors.

“I’m glad I caught you,” said Jaime, not moving from his spot against her drivers side door. “I really need to talk to you.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she insisted stubbornly. “Now please move away from my car.”

“Come on.” He gave her the most adorable sexy pout he could manage. “You can’t spare three minutes?”

“No.”

“Wow,” the person beside her laughed. “I never thought I’d see the day where you were actually rude to someone.”

Her face was a bright crimson. “I’m not being rude, Podrick, I-.”

“You are being a little rude,” Jaime agreed with the boy apparently named Podrick. 

“I am not.”

“You kinda are.”

Brienne huffed, pushing a stray pale blonde lock from her face behind her ear before she crossed her massive arms in front of her chest. “You have five seconds.”

Five seconds. Okay. He could make this work.

“I- I just, I wanted to talk to you about… about your swordplay.”

She scoffed. “What do you know about swordplay?”

“Quite a bit actually.”

“Then why haven’t I ever seen you at any of the bouts?”

“Because football games overlap with swordsman team meets,” he answered with a shrug. “But I know enough to know you’re really skilled at it. Do you use a longsword or a bastard blade?”

Brienne eyed him suspiciously. “Long.”

Jaime nodded. “I figured. A bastard is terrible if you rely a lot on footwork, it throws your balance off too easily. And then a great is just there for show in my opinion.”

She was cautious in her answer, looking at him like he was a cobra rearing to strike. “You have a point there.”

He flashed her that dazzling smile again. “I usually do.”

“Why all the sudden interest in swords? You never cared to talk to me about them before. As a matter of fact you never cared to talk to me about anything before unless it was to join in with your ex girlfriend making fun of me.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just… when Cersei tells you to hate someone, you do it. Without question.”

“Well I’m glad to know all the cruelty was done for the compelling reason of ‘someone told me to do it’,” she said dryly.

“Think about it, have I ever once made fun of you unless she egged it on first?” 

He had her there. Of course that didn’t mean he was in the right to blame Cersei for it all, he could have walked away at any point and he doubted apart from a few snarky comments she would have cared if he didn’t join in on bullying her special project, but Brienne didn’t need to know that. 

There was a bet to win after all.

He mustered up the most sympathetic look he could manage. “I’m sorry I was mean to you. Truly. That’s part of the reason why we broke up actually, I was sick of her petty high school drama.”

“I thought she broke up with you because she met someone else?”

“Well… yeah, but she cheated because I told her before she left for spring break that the immature pettiness had to stop.”

Brienne shifted uncomfortably. He could see her resolve starting to wane, torn between not really trusting him and not wanting to call him a liar to his face.

“Look, I’ll prove it.” He pulled out his phone and opened up his email. A few clicks later and he handed it over. “I have two reservations to the Valerian steel exhibit at the Red Keep museum.”

Big blue eyes went wide. “How did you manage to get tickets, that exhibit’s been sold out for weeks.”

He flashed her that cocky grin again, being rewarded with an eye roll. “I got a guy. But I was going to go with Cersei but I think she wouldn’t really appreciate the history like you would. Plus going with my ex… it might be a little awkward.”

“You should go,” Pod encouraged her. She glared at her friend but said nothing. “You wanted to go to that since you first saw the flyer, here’s your chance.”

“Yeah, babe, it should be fun.”

“Don’t call me that,” she warned him. “My name is Brienne.”

“Sorry,” he said not sounding sorry at all. She glowered at him but didn’t say anything else. “But I mean if you don’t wanna go I’m sure I can find someone else.”

Brienne bit her lip, looking between an enthusiastically nodding Podrick and Jaime before she sighed and nodded. “Anyway you can find your own way home?” she asked her friend.

“Yeah of course! Go, have fun.”

“Thanks.” She turned back to Jaime. “We take our own cars,” she told him, leaving zero room for argument before she climbed into her front seat without another word. Jaime snickered, shaking his head at the sheer bullheaded stubbornness before he got into his own car and followed her to his home away from home.

The museum was a large stone monolith full of artifacts from bygone eras. Stone tools used by the First Men, religious iconography from the Andal Invasion, gilded steel armor from the Targaryen Age, woven tapestries from the Second Dawn…

It was a place Jaime spent almost every weekend outside of football season. He knew the staff by name, they all knew him, and sometimes he knew more about the artifacts then the tour guides. 

He pulled in next to Brienne and he took a deep breath, drawing his most charming smirk onto his lips, before he got out and headed over to her. The excitement was palpable even on her usually dour expression. They walked into the museum and followed the signs to the Valerian steel exhibit, hidden behind a velvet rope and a ticket taker. He showed the worker his phone and waved Brienne though.

The walls were pale midnight, the floor was thick black carpet with soft lamps lighting hanging on the wall so they weren’t plunged completely into darkness. Bright white lights backlit the swords and helms and even a full suit of armor that were polished to a sheen that was so bright you could see yourself in the steel.

“Wow,” Brienne gasped as she looked around, blue eyes wide, voicing the exact same sentiment Jaime was feeling. 

They slowly and silently made their way up to the first artifact, a black crown studded with rubies. “‘First worn by Aegon I’,” Brienne read from the sleek black plaque beside the crown. “‘Last worn by Daeron I, found in a dig in Dorne’.”

“Gods, as if the man wasn't arrogant enough.” Jaime scoffed. 

“Who?” she asked without looking away from the crown.

“Aegon. He comes to a country he feels only he can save who didn’t ask for his conolonization, he threatens to burn people alive who don’t bow to him, and then he goes and fashions himself a crown of Valerian steel.”

He braced himself for an eye roll, or an ‘it happened two thousand years ago, what’s the point in discussing it’, but instead she just tilted her head to the side as if she was considering his opinion. “The seven kingdoms were warring constantly, he brought them all togetber,” she muttered with a blush, as if he might mock her. “He allowed the kings who bent the knee to retain their positions… “

“And the ones who fought him he burned alive, using weaponry no one else had access too, and then was arrogant enough to consider himself a savior and wears a Valerian steel crown.”

“Didn’t the Lannister kings weave actual gold into their clothes?”

Jaime blinked. “What’s your point?”

She raised a brow. “You don’t consider  _ that _ arrogant?”

“No.”

Brienne tolled bwr eyes but he swore he saw a hint of a smile on her lips before they moved onto the next artifact, a Valerian sword called ‘Heartsbane’ that went from Tarly hands to Mormont. After that was a display case with two swords. One was plainer and shorter with antlers on the hilt and then a slightly larger one with with golden lions making up the hilt with rubies. “Oathkeeper and Widows Wail,” Brienne read the plaque, a slow smile spreading on both their faces as they realized what they were looking at; two of the more well known swords from the end of the Targaryen era. “I can’t believe they have these two here.” She turned to Jaime, “did you know the Blue Knight herself wielded Oathkeeper? 

“Widows Wail belonged to the Blue Knight actually,” a man who was also in the exhibit said as he came up to the display. He had shoulder length dark hair and a northern accent. He looked positively smug. “Oathkeeper belonged to Golden Hand the Just.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, but I believe you’re mistaken,” she said as politely as she could. “The Blue Knight had Oathkeeper, Goldenhand had Widows Wail. She named it Oathkeeper for her lover.”

The man smirked. “Sorry sweetie.” She glowered at the pet name. “But you’re wrong. Look at the size difference. You really think a woman could wield a blade that big?”

She blushed again and Jaime raised a golden brow. “She’s right,” the boy told the man. Brienne eyed Jaime suspiciously, as if expecting an insult to follow, “The Blue Knight never would have named a blade something like Widows Wail or carried a weapon with that name. Also it was rumored the bastard stag was Goldenhands son, wouldn’t it make more sense that his father wield his sons sword?”

“Fair point,” the stranger agreed and Jaime pursed his lips, more annoyed at the man then he was a moment ago. 

“Why do you believe me but not her? I gave you no more information or proof then she did.”

“Jaime, please,” Brienne begged, her face burning a bright crimson. “It’s not worth it.”

“It is worth it, you were right.”

The stranger rolled his eyes, glaring at Brienne as if she had been the one to challenge him. “You can’t even have a conversation with a girl anymore without being Me Too’d.”

She looked at him rather shocked. “Wha-? I- I didn’t-.”

“Forget it,” the man grumbled before walking away.

Jaime rolled his eyes to the darkened ceiling. “Idiot.”

“Why did you do that?” she asked him. “Why did you defend me?”

“You were right he was wrong,” he answered with a shrug. “I dunno, I hate people who don’t know their history correcting others who do.” 

“I know but you didn’t have to…”

“I didn’t have to what? Correct him?” Jaime scoffed as if he was personally offended. “The spirit of the blue knight would have haunted us both if we let someone believe she carried a sword called Widows Wail.”

Brienne dipped her head, hiding a smile that showcased her crooked horsey teeth, not looking back up until she could hide her grin. “So what’s next?”

The two of them spent the rest of the night in the exhibit, talking about the artifacts, admiring the swords and Brienne even added in a fact or two that Jaime didn’t know. They stayed until a guard came by and told them the exhibit was closing in ten minutes. 

Afterwards they browsed the gift shop for a bit. Jaime grinned when he found something absolutely perfect for Brienne (and would definitely help seal the deal when it came time to ask her to the prom) and managed to buy it in secret while she browsed the books. He walked over to her, stowing the bag and future gift in his pocket and nodded towards the copy of ‘The Crownlands- Before the Dragons Came.’ by Yandel Longspear. 

“That’s a good read,” he told her. “Yandel doesn’t really embellish but it’s not super cut and dry either. If you’re looking for more dramatic plot driven history you’re better off with anything by Gyldayn, even if he doesn’t dramatize some of the events.”

Brienne raised her brow. “How many of these books do you own to know the writing style of the authors?”

Jaime shrugged. “Two or three.”  _ Copies. Of each.  _ “But if you want rather than pay 30 Dragons I’ll let you borrow my copy.”

“... Really?”

“Sure.”

She had to bite back a smile as she put the book back on the shelf and after she bought a hand painted postcard of the major Stormland Houses and Jaime bought a crimson hoodie with the prosthetic that gave Goldenhand his name on the front, the two headed out into the night, hands in their jacket pockets. 

“I actually had a lot of fun,” Brienne told him as they made their way to their cars.

“So did I,” Jaime said, surprising even himself. “It was fun actually coming here with someone who cares about this stuff.”

“Yeah I mean I didn’t really think you of all people would be this into history.” Is

He smirked at her. “Surprised the dumb jock is actually good at something besides sports?”

Brienne's blush traveled down her neck whole she stammered out an apology.. “No! No, I- I only meant- I just-....” She took a deep breath to settle her nerves. “There’s knowing history and then there’s looking THAT at peace when you talk about these kinds of things and knowing things that hardly anyone else would.”

“I’ve always been into history. It’s my only honor classes,” he admitted. Jaime shrugged, kicking a can away from him. “I-... I mean it won’t ever happen but I kinda was thinking about majoring in it after I graduate. Becoming a teacher maybe.”

“You should,” she said without a hint of hesitation or without letting him feel there was a ‘but’ coming. “You really know your stuff, Jaime.”

Jaime smiled at her. Not the smug sly grin or the one dripping with snakeoil charm but a real, genuine smile. A smile one might share with a friend. “Thank you, Brienne.” 

They stood scant but a few feet apart, the street lamps shining down on both of them. She was an inch or two taller than him and it felt odd having to look up, even a little, to look at her. But it also gave him a rather brilliant view of her eyes. They were big deep blue sapphires, flecked with other shades of blue he could barely begin to describe. They were beautiful. Truly the only part of her that really was.

“Has anyone ever told you,” he said as soft as a sigh. “That your eyes are really, really pretty?”

Brienne narrowed said eyes at Jaime. “Excuse me?”

“Your eyes. They’re big and blue and beautiful.”

He expected a blush, he expected a muttered ‘thank you’, he expected her to melt at his words like any other girl would have. What he didn’t expect was a sour angry look and a shake of her head. “Wow… really?”

“... What?”

“‘Your eyes are really beautiful’?”

“... They are?”

She scoffed. “Yeah, sure.” The tall blonde stormed past him, leaving him sufficiently befuddled.

“Brienne, I’m not really following…”

“Look I don’t know what your game is, or what you think is gonna happen, but just stop!”

“I didn’t even do anything!” he protested. “Brienne!”

“Exactly!” she snapped, turning back to him just as she reached her car. “You didn’t  _ do  _ anything! For twelve years you’ve done nothing but be a jerk to me and now all of a sudden you want to talk about swordsmanship and go to museums together and you want to talk about how pretty my eyes are on a dark street corner?” Brienne wrenched open the door and climbed inside. “Thank you for the ticket, I had a really fun time, but stay away from me from now on, okay?”

“Babe!” he yelled at her. “Come on! Seriously?!”

“My name is Brienne!” she shouted back, the final word of the night before she slammed the door shut and sped off into the night…

Please Review!!!


	3. Chapter 3

“And then he was all- ‘your eyes are really beautiful’.” Brienne mocked in a rather poor imitation of Jaime’s upper class accent. She scoffed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “I never should have gone with him,” she grumbled in her own voice, angrily stabbing at her Yiti pepper steak with her fork. 

“Well… I mean maybe he was just offering a compliment?” Podrick offered, taking another scoopful of sticky rice out of the white container. Brienne glared at her best friend since childhood who just shrugged in return. “I’m just saying you  _ do _ have pretty eyes. And there was a reason why he took you to the museum in the first place.”

“Yeah to make fun of me.”

“Did he?” her father asked from beside her after swallowing a mouthful of sweet and sour pigeon. “Make fun of you I mean?”

Brienne shuffled in her chair, staring down at her plate of food. “Not really. Not until the eye comment.”

“Was there anything he did or said that made it seem like it was some big elaborate hoax?” Selwyn continued. She shook her head. “Did you two have fun?” A beat and then a nod. “Then why is it so hard to believe this Jaime guy was just trying to be nice?”

“Because he’s been nothing but mean to me for years. Why the sudden change, why does he want to be my friend now?” she challenged him.

Podrick answered for her father. “Maybe breaking up with Cersei made him see the light. Maybe he really was sick of her childish pettiness.”

Brienne just shrugged, taking a forkful of vegetables from the takeout box when there was a knock at the front door. She got up from the small crowded kitchen table and headed to the front of the small Kingslanding home she shared with her father and Podrick and opened the door to find the person she least expected to ever show up at her apartment standing in her doorstep.

“Hi,” Jaime greeted with a friendly smile, looking impossibly, almost obnoxiously beautiful. The sun was shining bright and made his golden hair almost a halo, a sliver of tanned skin was showing where his shirt was casually unbuttoned. Even the way he was leaning against the door, hands in his shorts pockets, was casually cool in a way she could never hope to be.

She pushed a stray piece of lank hair from her face, all of a sudden hyper-aware of every crooked tooth, every freckle, her broadness, her obscene height and every other unfortunate ugly feature the Gods and genetics cursed her with. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, more curious than angry. 

He answered with a bright perfect smile.“I was wondering if you wanted to hit the beach.”

“The-... the beach? Why?”

“It’s a nice day out, I don’t have anything else going on… you wanna go?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. And how do you know my address?”

“I got it from Tyrion.”

Brienne bit back a groan. She forgot that Jaime’s younger brother tutored Podrick for a time and had come over to their house more than once. Tyrion has been nice enough the few times she emerged from her room when he was here if not arrogant, but she supposed when you were smart enough to skip two grades and would be going to the Citadel on full scholarship come the fall you earned the right to be a bit boastful.

“Come on, Babe,” he tried again. 

The tall blonde glowered at him. “My name is-.”

“Brienne then,” he sighed. “Please? It might actually be fun. I mean you did have fun with me the other night until you freaked out on me.”

A hot blush crept up her face. “I did not  _ freak out _ on you.” 

“You definitely freaked out. But it’s okay.” His expression flickered with a hint of something that deepened her blush. “Now you have the chance to make it up to me.”

“Whose making what up to who now?”

Brienne bit back a groan as her father and Podrick appeared behind her. Jaime straightened out and offered a charming smile to Selwyn, sticking out his hand.

“You must be Mr. Tarth,” he said in his most respectful sort of voice. “I’m Jaime Lannister, Brienne’s friend.”

“How do you do?” Selwyn offered with a curt nod and a firm handshake. 

“Very good, Ser, thank you. I was just talking to your daughter about maybe heading to the beach with her? If that’s alright with you?”

“And I was just telling him I don’t like the beach,” Brienne said quickly before her father could speak. 

Selwyn narrowed his eyes at his daughter. “What are you talking about, you love the beach.”

The smirk on Jaime’s face was infuriating.

“Plus Sara is coming over later,” Selwyn continued, drawing forth a groan from her and a sympathetic smile from Pod. “And I know how much you love her being here.”

“I don’t mind her,” Brienne muttered. 

“Sure you don’t.... Go to the beach with your friend, Brienne.”

She huffed out a breath of annoyance before she turned back to Jaime, crossing his muscular arms in front of her broad chest. “Fine. But Podricks coming with us.”

Podrick looked up at Brienne. “I am?”

“You are.”

He turned back to Jaime. “I am.”

Jaime looked slightly crestfallen but only for a moment before he smiled at the brown eyed boy. “Sure. The more the merrier.”

Minutes later Pod was in Jaime’s backseat (shockingly his backseat was too full for Brienne to fit comfortably and she would have to sit in the front next to him) and she sat beside Jaime wearing a dark blue tank top and a pair of comfortable grey shorts over her swimsuit. The music on his higher end stereo was loud and thankfully some of the awkwardness dissipated but even still the conversation was held to a minimum, consisting of small talk that usually didn’t go above or beyond one word answers on her part. 

After a while they pulled into a fairly empty parking area alongside a mostly abandoned but nice hidden away stretch of ocean. Podrick grabbed their towels and then she and Jaime both took one handle of the cooler of drinks and an armful of beach chairs from the backseat.

Jaime sent Podrick up ahead to claim a spot even though they all but had the pick of the litter and Brienne bit back a groan when they were left alone. 

“You were a transfer from Tarth right?” he asked her. “When you were in fifth grade?”

“Yes,” she answered stiffly and cautiously.

“... And?” he said rather amused at her short answer. “Tell me about it. Did you get extra points on homework because you have the same name as the island?”

She shook her head. “No. No um it’s- the Tarth family no longer owns Tarth no more then the Arryns own the vale. But it was… it was nice,” she said. “We lived near the ruins of Evenfall practically on the beach, it always the perfect level of hot, not like a Dornish dry heat but it wasn’t muggy either.”

“Brienne I can google the average temperatures,” he laughed that perfect laugh of his. “Tell me about some weird local food you swear by that the rest of Westeros can’t stand, tell me about your friends, your family…”

“I um… I didn’t really have any friends,” she admitted with a blush. “I was always too tall, too ugly, too… me. But I did enjoy living there. There was this little ice cream shop near our house that my dad would always take me and my brother to when one of us got an A on a test, they had this sea salt caramel topping that was amazing, I never have been able to find it here.”

Jaime nodded towards Podrick who was busy laying out his chair. “You and your brother ever go back and visit?”

“Oh no, Podrick isn’t my brother.”

“Doesn’t he lives with you?”

“He does but I’m- I’m sorry, it’s not really my place to tell why.”

Jaime nodded. “I can respect that.” He smiled at her again. “Truth be told I admire that, you’d be hard pressed to find someone in this whole city who isn’t eagerly awaiting the next person to spill their gossip too.”

“Yeah well like I said when you’re as ugly as I am you don’t have that many friends to gossip with…”

They set the cooler down in front of the three chairs and Jaime turned towards her, a curious look in his eye. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” 

“Talk down about yourself so much.”

Brienne shrugged, taking out a Diet Coke from the cooler. “When you’re made fun of for as long as I’ve been, you tend to try to beat people to the punch.”

Jaime bowed his head for a moment. When he looked back up his bright green eyes shone with an apologeticness. “I’m sorry. For what I said to you all these years. It was really shitty of me and I won’t make fun of you again. I swear it.”

She would have been hard pressed to find any falsehood in the look in his eyes. He actually looked… bad for the part he played in her teasing.

Brienne blushed again, looking down at the sand as well before she looked back up, meeting his eyes head on. “Thank you,” she muttered, willing the heat not to creep up her face.

That dazzling smile was back. Gods how could a man be as gorgeous as he was and still be real? “You’re welcome.”

“Lannister!”

The three of them turned towards the source of the voices and Brienne inhaled sharply as she saw Jaime’s usual posse walking in from the parking lot, chairs and coolers in hand. Sansa Stark or Jon Snow never looked at her twice much less made fun of her so she wasn’t too worried about them and Euron would laugh along with Jaime and Cersei’s and others comments and would always have a sneer when she passed him in the halls but barely spoke to her himself. But Margaery was one of those snake like girls who could, and did, make fun of your to your face in a way that almost felt like a compliment but when everyone around her was snickering, you knew the truth. 

It also didn’t help that her first year in Kingslanding High Brienne humiliated her brother Loras on the playground after he challenged her to an arm wrestling match for a turn on the swings that she won in about 5 seconds without a lot of real effort on her part. For the whole year after he was teased for losing to a girl.

“Dammit,” Jaime sighed before he turned towards Brienne. “I didn’t know they’d be here,” he promised her.

“It’s fine. You can just pretend you’re not with me or say you took pity on me and gave me a ride after my car broke down or something,” she said with a shrug, rubbing her hand up and down her arm.

He looked positively confounded. “Why would I lie about being here with you? I mean if we’re gonna be friends, we might as well get it over sooner rather than later right?”

She didn’t have an answer for that, so she just stayed quiet as the small group made their way towards him, grateful that Podrick at least was standing beside her incase this all went south.

“We called your house, your dad said you were at the beach,” Jon explained as they approached, setting their stuff right down next to theirs. “So we figured you were at your usual spot.”

Euron smirked at the tall blonde. “This would be, what, Lannister, the seventh girl you brought down here?”

Brienne blushed, missing the glare thrown from Jaime to Euron but she willed her lips and tongue to cooperate without too much of a shake. “At least I’d be the Holiest Number… Be- because I’d be the seventh…”

There was a moment of silence filled only by crashing waves and gulls crying and then Sansa, thank her Northern Gods, laughed, Jon followed and even Margaery snickered. Euron grinned, walking over and clapping her on the shoulder. She willed herself not to flinch away or stiffen up. 

“You shoulda told us she was funny, Lannister.”

“Somehow slipped my mind,” Jaime said almost what could have been described as sharp. 

The black haired man just snickered, slapped her on the shoulder again and then Jaime and Pod was summoned to help Jon and Euron grab the rest of the stuff from the car.

“I’m Sansa,” Sansa said with a friendly smile, pushing a piece of long red hair behind her ear. “The brooding short guy is my cousin.”

“I know who you are. Who you both are actually, I’ve seen you at some of the swordsman meets when Arya competes. Your sister’s really good.” 

“Yeah she's actually gonna start training with some dancing master from Bravvos. Is that something you’ve done?”

“Oh no, I could never do any Essos training.”  _ Or afford my own private coach.  _ “I rely too much on strength. Essos style is all about speed and using small blades.”

“Gods it’s like talking to Arya at the dinner table,” Sansa muttered, but there was still a smile on her beautiful ivory face so she didn’t take it as an insult.

Brienne took off her tank top as well as her shorts, revealing a dark blue one piece underneath, doing her absolute best and failing miserably not to compare herself to the stunning Sansa in her simple grey and white bikini that showed off a pale gorgeous perfectly proportioned body, red hair flowing freely in the wind, or Margaery who wore a two piece jade and gold suit that covered so little they if she moved too much something far curvier than Brienne could have ever dreamt of possessing would have fallen out. 

Brienne wanted to wrap her towel around herself and stay covered until they all decided to leave, or at least put on her tank top and shorts again. Her shoulders were broad, she was obscenely tall with way too long legs, her breasts might as well have been non-existent whereas her lips were too plump for her horsey freckled face, and she was thick in the hips and jaw as well. Her hair was too short to tie back and the wind was doing the dry brittleness of it no favors. There was hardly any softness to her, just ropes of thick hard muscles earned from years and years of sports and working out. 

“Think he’s over Cersei yet?” Margaery asked when the boys were finally out of earshot as she sat down in her beach chair. She looked over at Brienne and barely held back a sneer. “I mean he certainly looks to be. Don’t tell me we interrupted a date?”

“Wha-? No, no, Gods no, we’re just…”

“Friends?” Sansa offered as she sat in her own chair. 

“I- I think so?”

Margaery snickered and Sansa smiled, full of almost pitying sympathy, and Brienne never wanted to be as far away from the beach as she did right then.

Jaime returned with the rest of the guys carrying more chairs, several surfboards and another cooler of drinks and his eyes found her, and then they went wide with surprise and her blush deepened. “Brienne. You look…”

Her blush deepened and she turned her head so she wasn’t looking at him. “I- the suit- it’s… it’s old, I just-...”

Out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn she saw his swim shorts stir when he looked at her but that would be crazy. Because for that to be true that would mean he was even slightly attracted to her.

And that idea just wasn’t feasible in the least.

She sat down on her towel and watched Jaime take off his T-shirt and it took every ounce of restraint not to lick her lips. The tight clothes he wore didn’t do his body justice. His muscles looked like they were chiseled from marble and a roaring golden lion tattoo laid overtop his heart. Gods he was perfect. He was tall and strong and beautiful, his golden curls shone bright in the afternoon sun and his eyes were a gorgeous dark emerald green.

What in the seven hells was he doing with her?

“Well I don’t know about you girls,” Euron said as he tossed his own shirt away and picked up one of the surfboards they brought. “But I’m going to catch some waves.”

“You guys wanna join?” Jon asked, picking up his own board. “Marg?”

“Not on your life,” Margaery told him, putting on a pair of sunglasses and leaning back against her chair.

“Fair enough. Sansa?”

“I’m good,” the redhead said without looking up from the book she was reading.

“Brienne?” Jaime asked her. “You in?”

“Yeah, no,” Margaery laughed before Brienne could even open her mouth.

“I didn’t realize your name was Brienne,” Jaime told her with a raised brow.

“It’s not but I mean don’t you have to be, ya know, small? To surf? No offense,” she called out to the tall blonde who was doing her best to pretend not to hear her. “I mean I’m not calling you fat-.”

“Oh my GODS, Margaery!” 

“But you’re just not small is all.”

Brienne willed her voice to keep its shaking to a minimum. “I know what you meant. And to answer your question, no you don’t have to be.”

Margaery raised a perfectly tweezed brow. “Are you sure about that?”

Brienne pursed her plump lips before she stood up from her towel, brushing the sand off before she walked over to the pile of boards, grabbing Jaime’s board from his hands. There was an inch or so difference in height between them but their weight was all but even she would have wagered, which meant he would have a well centered board that was almost as custom made for her as it was for him.

“Watch my stuff, Pod,” she told the brown eyed boy who hadn’t been able to take his eyes off the red head since she arrived. 

Without another word Brienne jumped into the water and began paddling out. She waited until a fairly sizeable wave came rolling in and she hopped up on her board without any issue and began to ride it, keeping the expensive wood steady as a line as she cut clearly through the water as the wave circled overhead, surrounding her in the dark blue water of the Blackwater Bay. It wasn’t nearly as beautiful as riding Tarth’s bright blue sapphire ocean that was so clear you could see the fish swimming inside the wall, but it was still a nice enough view, she guessed. 

Brienne rode two more waves on the inside and when she got an open one she cut and slashed and twisted through the, strangely, faint silver smelling water before she casually rode a wave back to shore, pushing a mop of soaking wet pale straw hair from her face. Her face burned with blush and she bit her lip to keep from smiling too widely as she was met with wild cheers and applause from the group, none of them louder than Jaime’s whoops and hollering.

“You did amazing, Babe!” Jaime said, and for once she didn’t bother correcting him. He went to stand by her side, wrapping his arm around her non existent waist and pulling her close. Very close. She would blame the bright red blush on the heat when asked about it later.

“That was the BEST!” Sansa gushed, abandoning her spot besides an annoyed Margaery and hurrying over to Brienne, a beaming grin on her pale but pretty face. “Where did you learn how to do that?”

“I grew up in Tarth right near the beach,” Brienne told her, ignoring the fuzziness in her brain that came from the fact Jaime’s hand was still on her waist and there wasn’t so much as an inch of space between them. “I learned to surf and sail before I even learned how to walk.” 

“Could you teach me?” Sansa asked giddily. 

Brienne looked over and saw Pod, her brother for all intents and purposes, looking at Sansa like a love struck puppy.

“Actually I’m fairly heavy on the backfoot which wouldn’t do good for someone of your statue but Pod, he could teach you no problem,” the blonde told her. “He’s very good,”  _ ish. _

Sansa looked over at the rather dorky looking guy Brienne brought with them nicknamed Pod and then smiled at him rather sheepishly. Sansa Stark, one of the richest people in the school, one of the best looking ones, smiled at Pod. Pod- with only a hint of muscles in his abs, a goofy smile and the biggest most adorable eyes that could belong to a teenage boy.

“Sure,” Sansa said and Brienne almost laughed at the simultaneous sheer relief and frazzled nerves that overwhelmed poor Podrick.

The rest of the day was spent taking turns with Jaime on his board and trying, failing but trying, to feel more at ease with this group who either never so much as talked to her or was outwardly mocking. Podrick tried his best to teach Sansa to surf for a good hour but after her falling off the board for a tenth time in a row and ending up with a nasty bruise on her side, the two were content to just sit in the sand talking. 

By the time they were heading back to the cars the sun was sitting low in the sky and as they were walking back to their respected cars Euron hurried over to her and draped his arm around her shoulders, having to reach up to do so.

“You’re actually a lot of fun to be around, Tarth,” he told her. She noticed he was ignoring the slight glare Jaime was throwing at him.

“Um… Thank you?”

He laughed and pulled her closer. “You should actually come to this party I’m throwing on Saturday.”

She froze in her step. “A party?”

Brienne hadn’t been to a party since she was 8 and the birthday girl, a short plump girl named Roelle, told Brienne in front of everyone that she ONLY invited the tall blonde because her mom felt bad for the ‘ugly girl’ and made Roelle give her an invitation. When Selwyn asked his daughter why she called him and begged to be picked up early Brienne just lied and said she had a stomach ache,

“Yeah,” Euron continued. “My parties are legendary. Rivers of booze, mountains of hotties… You wanna come?”

Everyone was looking at her. A hot blush crept its way up her cheeks and she wrapped her arms, her thick muscular unfeminine arms, around herself. “I-... I don’t-.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Sansa promised with a friendly smile. “Jaime, you can pick her up right?”

“Of course,” he said at once.

The red head turned towards Pod and a hint of something one could only describe as flirty invaded her smile. “And Pod, if you aren’t too busy maybe you can come too?”

Podrick blinked and then broke out into a wide beaming smile. “Sure. Yeah that- that could be fun.”

Sansa grinned and then turned back to Brienne. “So? Will you come?”

Brienne swallowed hard and hugged herself tighter. “Okay,” she muttered.

Jon and Euron got into one car while Sansa and Margaery got into another.

“This should be fun,” she heard Margaery mutter as Sansa started the car. “If Cersei sees Jaime with  _ her,  _ she's going to flip her shit…”

Brienne bowed her head as the others drove off leaving just Jaime, Pod and Brienne. 

Podrick looked between them and cleared his throat. “I’ll just go get the car started…” he told them before heading over to the car out of earshot.

Once they were alone Jaime smiled at her, that perfect dazzling smile. “So we survived.” She said nothing in response and just shrugged. He cocked his head at her. “Hey? You okay?”

_ No.  _

“Yeah I’m fine. I just, I can’t go. To the party, I can’t.”

“But you told everyone-.”

“I remembered I have to clean. It’s- the house, it’s a mess. And then I- I have swordsmanship practice, I have to go to work… It just wouldn’t be a good time for me to go.”

Jaime looked genuinely hurt.  _ It’s just your imagination. He doesn’t want you there anymore than you want to go. Well… maybe he does, but he won’t miss you if you don’t go.  _ “Oh… cleaning.”

“Cleaning. So I’m sorry, but I can’t go.”

Jaime smiled at her, a sad sort of one that made her feel guilty for lying. “I get it. Come on.” He wrapped his arm around her waist again and the warm fluttering of butterflies was back. “Let’s get you home, Babe.”

“My name is Brienne,” she said, this time with a hint of amusement as he led her to his car.

“Nah.” He grinned and opened the door for her. “Babe suits you…”

Please Review! Also I got some bad news about another ship of mine last night which makes me 0-3 in surviving happy OTP’s so please make me feel better lol. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

“So can someone tell me why I’m being volunteered to clean a former tutor of mine houses?”

“I told you,” Jaime said as he drove himself, Tyrion and his brother’s girlfriend Shae, a short slender dark haired Essos beauty the younger Lannister met in a strip club, to Briennes. “We need to help her clean her house so she can go to Greyjoy’s party.”

“Did it ever occur to you that she just didn’t wanna go and was just using the cleaning thing as an excuse?”

“Of course it did. Which is why we’re going to clean it for her so she doesn’t have an excuse.”

“Is this also why you and I went shopping earlier?” Shae asked in her flavorful accent, staring out the window at the passing houses. “For this girl?”

“Yes.”

“You must really like her,” Tyrion said with a slight smirk. 

“She’s… different then the type of girl I usually hang out with,” Jaime admitted. 

Tyrion nodded knowingly. “So why did you?”

“Why did I what?”

“Start hanging out Brienne Tarth of all people. I mean don’t get me wrong, the few times I talked to her she was nice enough,” Tyrion assured him. “Very shy, kinda quiet but that’s understandable considering. Doesn’t explain why, when you were happily dating the Queen bee herself just a week ago, you suddenly want to start being around people with decent personalities.”

A flurry of guilt ate at him as he pulled into her driveway. He struggled to keep the shame out of his voice when he told Tyrion, “I’m just looking for a new change of pace.”

The small party said nothing more on the subject while they made their way to her front door, waiting while he knocked, a dress-bag hung over Shae’s tiny arm and a large makeup case in her hand. A moment later the impossibly tall Brienne answered the door, narrowing her blue eyes at him in confusion.

“Hello,” Jaime said giving her his most dazzling smile.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking between the three people standing on her doorstep. “I told you I couldn’t go out, I was cleaning.”

“I know. Which is why I brought reinforcements.”

“Wha-?”

“Me and Tyrion, we’ll clean your house while you get ready.”

Brienne blinked, looking from Jaime to Tyrion to Shae. “I-... That-.”

“And I’m sure Pod will help too?” Jaime called out rather loudly.

“He-.”

“Absolutely!” the boy shouted from somewhere inside the house.

She swallowed hard, motioning to Jaime and then herself. “I- I mean I would, I would go with- with you but 

I don’t have-...  _ you  _ look amazing and I-.”

He grabbed the dress bag from shae and held it up by the hanger. “I hope I got your measurements right…”

He had. He knew he did. He wouldn’t have been able to forget how she looked in that bathing suit even if he wanted to, and honestly the more he pictured her in it, the less he wanted to forget.

“...I’m a mess.” She forced a laugh, running her hand through her disheveled hair. “I- I just got done with practice and I still smell like fry grease from work...”

“That’s why they brought me along,” Shae said, grabbing Brienne’s hand in one of her own and the dress bag in the other. The small girl turned towards Jaime. “We’ll be upstairs if you need us. Come, Brienne.” She tugged at her hand, as if she had a chance at physically moving her and Brienne looked to Jaime for help but to no avail. He had to bite back a grin at the terrified look on her face before she allowed Shae to pull her up the stairs and into her bedroom.

“She better be worth it,” Tyrion grumbled as he and Jaime headed to the car to get the cleaning supplies with Podrick joining them soon after.

Jaime glanced back at the house, a small smile playing on his lips.  _ She actually just might be… _

Two hours later with the house thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom, not that it was messy or dirty to begin with, Jaime, Tyrion and Pod, who was also dressed in his finest jeans and button down, all sat on the couch half watching reruns of The Real Housewives of the Vale. Lysa Tully just started an epic freakout that they had all seen on Raventube and in meme form when they heard Shae clear her throat from the doorway.

“Gentlemen; may I present the new, not improved, but different, Brienne Tarth!” 

Jaime was the first off the couch, making his way over to the entryway where… nothing happened. 

“Brienne!” Shae called out, an awkward smile on her small thin lips. A long stretch of silence answered her. Jaime raised his brow at his brother’s lover. Shae cleared her throat and called out louder. “Brienne Tarth! Get your cute butt that I just worked on for two hours down here!”

A footstep on the stairs, then another and another. He saw her, and Jaime’s jaw dropped. He looked like a right fool, he knew, but it couldn’t be helped.

Brienne was beautiful. 

Her short blonde hair had been curled gently and styled in a way that perfectly framed her face, and the makeup she wore wasn’t over the top like some other girls liked to wear it as but it was natural, subtle, and best of all her eyes, her beautiful deep blue eyes, seemed to pop even more than usual. Her plump lips had a pale red stain on them and looked velvety soft. For one moment Jaime wondered how it might feel to have those lips pressed against his. 

The dress he and Shae picked out earlier that day fit her like a glove and somehow giving her the illusion of curves where none existed before. It was a simple dark blue spaghetti strap dress, with a slit that went halfway up her thigh and the small three inch chunky heels that matched the dress made her already long legs go on for days and days.

Brienne blushed deeply when her eyes found Jaimes, the crimson heat burning through the foundation, and she had to bite back a smile. She walked down the last of the steps and Jaime finally remembered to move over to her, his mind buzzing. 

After a moment of staring wide eyed and slack jawed he cleared his throat, and motioned to her. 

“Blue is a good color on you,” Jaime observed. “It goes well with your eyes.”  _ She does have astonishing eyes.  _

Brienne glanced down at herself, flustered. “The- the top, the bra, it’s padded.”

_ Oh. Well then _ .

He had to choke back a laugh as he nodded. “I wouldn’t have been able to tell.” 

Jaime offered her his arm and Brienne glanced over at Shae who nodded eagerly before she reached up with shaking hands to take it. She looked back towards Podrick who just smiled. “I’ll get my own ride to the party,” he told her.

The fear in her eyes shone brightly, but only for a moment before a forced determination overtook it and she turned to Jaime, her voice trembling only slightly. “You ready to go?”

He nodded before he got on his top toes and kissed her cheek. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

Her face went as red as a rose and a small shy smile graced her plump lips. She muttered out a timid, “thank you,” and the two of them headed out into the night.

Her blush deepened when he held the door open for her and she muttered another ‘thank you’ and then they were off. The music was playing so it relieved some of the awkwardness and Jaime kept looking over at her, smiling when she kept fiddling with the dress, pulling it down so it was longer but then having to pull it back up so it showed less of her cleavage. He finally reached over and put a hand overtop of hers, and you would have thought she saw a ghost by the way she froze. 

“Stop fidgeting. You look fine,” he assured her. “The dress looks fine, your makeup looks fine, your hair looks fine…”

“I’m sorry, I just… I’ve never-... This is all new to me, and it’s all happening kinda fast.”

“I know, but you’re gonna do fine okay?” Jaime pursed his lips. “You’ve heard the tale of how Goldenhand slayed the last Dragon king right?” 

“Of course.”

“Well imagine how terrified he must have been. But he did it anyway. I’m sure if he can handle killing the man he was sworn to protect you can handle a high school party.”

“He was labeled a Kingslayer for it and it wasn’t until his grandson told everyone why he did it that the stain was washed away from his name.”

Jaime grinned. Most thought Goldenhands wife, the Blue Knight, was the one to tell the masses the truth not realizing she never would have broken her word to him. Brienne was the only person he had met who knew the truth.

“That’s right, Selwyn Lannister was the one to let everyone know the truth and his grandfather finally was named the hero he deserved to be known as from day one. But even still- I highly doubt you’re going to do anything as life altering as killing a king at a high school party.” 

He was pleased to see her smile and was happier that she,finally, stopped fiddling with her dress.

A half hour later he pulled up to a large white mansion swarmed with nearly every senior in the class, a fair number of juniors of and even quite a few college students, some mulling about, talking and laughing outside, a few in the pool but most were inside. You could hear the ‘thump thump’ of the music and through the windows you could see the red and green lights along with the rapidly blinking strobe lights. Brienne was looking up at the house like she was heading towards her execution and Jaime frowned.

For one selfish moment he thought about how if they left no one would be able to see her like this; killer legs on display, made up, hair something other than thin and lanky, and that would have definitely messed up any opportunity for her to win Queen. But on the other hand he asked her to step out of her comfort zone twice so far this week alone… It wasn’t fair to her to keep pushing and pushing.

“Hey…” He waited until she was looking at him. “If you really don’t wanna do this, we don’t have to. I think if you let yourself you’ll have fun but if you want we can go get burgers and then I can take you home.”

“But… you wanna go.”

“I’ve been to a hundred of these parties, it’s fine if I don’t go to one more.”

She gnawed at her plump lip, looking back at the house. The unease in her eyes increased the guilt eating at him by tenfold. He gave her his softest smile that he knew just by the look in her eyes was melting her. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

Jaime went to turn to go back in the car but then a hand reached out and took hold of his. Her hand was calloused and rough, much like his, and strong too but she was surprisingly gentle.  _ Gentler than Cersei. _

Her voice shook slightly. “I’ll go.”

“Are you sure? We don’t have to.”

She took a deep breath before she nodded, and forced a smile to her lips. “Like you said, if Goldenhand could face Ned Stark of all people, I can face a bunch a house party.”

Once she realized she was still holding onto his hand she let it drop, blushing crimson and muttering an apology before the two of them headed inside.

The music was even louder in the house and it was crowded from wall to wall with boys and girls, men and women, nearly all of them with drinks in their hands, dancing, talking, laughing, flirting, and Jaime swore he saw Jon pressing a silver haired girl up against the wall devouring her lips and slipping a hand up her painted Dothraki vest.

“You guys made it!” 

Jaime bit back a groan as Euron came over, thrusting two cups of some kind of red-tinted liquor in both their hands. 

“Thank you,” Brienne said, taking a small sip of the liquor, cringing at the taste but to her credit she managed to swallowed before she handed off the rejected drink to Jaime. “Who are all these people?”

“I have no idea to be honest.” Euron took a long drink from the drink in Jaime’s hand. “But who am I to say no to people who wanna party?”

“The son of the homeowners?”

Euron laughed. “True but it’s my parents shit they’re mostly wrecking and my parents are assholes so fuck ‘um.”

Jaime saw a flash of red hair in the crowd and then Sansa was in front of them wearing a pair of tight white leather pants and a white halter lined with grey fur, beaming at the tall blonde. “Brienne! Oh my gods you look  _ amazing! _ ” Brienne blushed and bowed her head, muttering her thanks. “Jaime, doesn’t she look amazing?”

“She does,” he agreed, chuckling as her cheeks burned hotter. Sansa craned her neck around them. “Didn’t Pod say he was coming?”

“He is, he’s taking his own car.”

Euron’s pale blue eyes fluttered between Brienne and Jaime. “So you two came here alone?”

“As friends,” Brienne insisted quickly. “Just friends.”

He wanted to slap the smugness off of Eurons face but he settled for downing the rest of the liquor in the cup. “Come on, Brienne,” Jaime said, putting a hand on her back so he could steer her away from Euron. “Let’s go sit down.”

“Well actually I was wondering if I could maybe borrow her for a second?” Sansa asked. A sweet shy smile graced her ivory face. “Maybe ask her a bit about Pod before he gets here?”

“Sure.” He nodded towards Brienne. “Go.  _ And have fun _ .”

Sansa beamed at him before she took the stunned tall blonde by the hand and led her away talking rather rapidly.

“She sure cleans up nice,” Euron purred as they watched her walk away. “And my Gods would you look at those legs? It’s probably the booze talking but if we turned off all the lights I wouldn’t mind those wrapped me for a night.” Jaime’s hand curled into a fist and his emerald green eyes narrowed at the man standing before him. “So what’s going on, did you guys come here  _ together  _ or what _ ?” _

Jaime shrugged. “I brought her here if that’s what you mean.”

Euron rolled his eyes to the high ceilings. “Come on, man, let’s get serious.” He smirked at the blonde quarterback, taking another drink from the cup in his clenched hand. “You uh… you mixing a little business with pleasure?”

“Hate to break it to you, Greyjoy, but it’s just a bet…”

Even to himself the words felt hollow and false, and the reminder that this was all for a bet, a rather juvenile bet if he was being honest with himself, came crashing down hard.

All of a sudden Jaime wasn’t exactly in a partying mood…

He was about to go sit down when he heard a loud cannon of booming drunken laughter. When he turned towards the sound he groaned, seeing a very drunk Robert Baratheon and a buzzed annoyed Cersei coming down the stairs, drinks in hand. 

“ ** _NOW THE PARTY CAN START_ ** !” Robert roared, nearly every person turning towards him while he downed the remainder of what was in an abandoned cup beside him, spitting out a cigarette butt afterwards. Beside him Cersei rolled her eyes before the two of them made their way down the stairs together.

“Honey, can you get me a beer?” Cersei cooed, draping her arms around his thick neck. He ignored her, choosing instead to take a drink from a passer buyer and emptying it, brown liquor dripping down his thick black beard and onto the floor. “Honey? Robert!”

He finally acknowledged her and turned to her with stormy blue eyes glossed over, wobbling rather dangerously. 

“I want! A beer!” she snapped at him.

“I gotcha, my Queen,” he slurred, placing a wet sloppy kiss on her lips before he walked away, every step uneven and managing to somehow knock into every single person in his way. 

Cersei caught an amused Jaime’s eye and she stumbled over to him, flashing a smile that he once adored but now just found annoying. “Hi, Jaime.”

He acknowledged her with a nod. “Cersei.”

She took the drink that for half a second had been Brienne’s. “Ya know I- I Robert, he- he is a GREAT athlete, I mean he, he could beat you I bet.”

“I bet,” he said dryly. 

“Did you know he was in the  _ Great Games _ ? If want an introduction I could probably make it happen…”

“Ya know what? ESPN replayed some of his best hits the other night. Watching him shit himself WHILE he was lifting weights was impressive enough.”

She narrowed her emerald green eyes at him. “Eat me, Jaime!”

“Been there. Done that. Turns out I’m not a fan of fish.”

The sound of her sharp slap against his cheek was barely heard over the loud uproarious laugh of her boyfriend. He staggered back to Cersei, nearly falling to the floor and using her shoulder as a means to stand, (and without the beer she asked for.) She rolled her eyes as he grabbed another random abandoned cup of liquor and lifted it, splashing it everywhere. 

“ ** _YOU CALL THIS A PARTY?! _ ** Robert boomed, and once again every eye turned to him. Jaime had no idea Cersei could blush that hard. “ ** _IT’S A FUCKIN’ BORE! NOW START THE DAMN THING BEFORE I PISS ME-SELF!”_ **

Jaime almost felt bad for the blonde as she stormed away from the two men. Unfortunately she was storming right in the direction of where Brienne was walking back to Jaime, an actual smile on her face for once.

_ Shit. _

He watched as Cersei spotted the blonde, not that she was easily missed, watched as her sharp eyes glowered at her, watched as she stormed over to the swordswoman who was taller than her by a foot, at least. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Cersei barked, effectively freezing Brienne in her place, any smile she wore now long gone.

“I- I was invited,” Brienne said, blue eyes darting around for Jaime or Sansa or Pod or anyone to come to her rescue. 

Jaime started towards them but Robert clapped a massive hand on his shoulder.  _ Maiden alive, he was strong. _ “Let um go, Boy.” Robert laughed again. “Maybe one of um will start tearing off the other’s clothes. My moneys on the tall one.”

The easily heard comment added an outrageous amount of fuel to Cersei’s already burning drunken fire. “Really? You were invited? Who would invite  _ YOU,  _ Brienne? Who here would even  _ WANT _ to be around a tall ugly beast like you?”

Without waiting for a response Cersei took the drink in her hand and dumped it over Brienne’s head, soaking her and staining the new dress Jaime spent hours with Shae picking up. The makeup she had patiently endured being painted on now ran in black and blue rivers down her face and the curl had gone from her pale blonde hair, leaving it thin and straight once more.

She stood there, frozen, blue eyes closed, hands shaking.

“You’re not one of us,” Cersei told her in no uncertain terms. “You can put on as many slutty little dresses as you want and paint your horsey freckled face with as much cheap makeup as you can buy but underneath it all you’re nothing but a big ugly freakshow, and that is all you will ever be.”

Brienne's eyes finally opened and even from where Jaime was standing he saw her lips tremble. Cersei pouted her perfectly made lips at her. “You’re not gonna cry are you?”

She blinked away the aforementioned tears that the golden haired woman pointed out before she pushed past her and hurried out of the house. Jaime finally managed to break free of Roberts hold and sprinted after her, ignoring Jon and Sansa and all the rest calling out to him. He ignored them all and ran after the poorest, most unattractive woman he had ever met, who deserved a hundred times better than any other shit person at that party, including him.

“Brienne!” he cried out, running after her as she hurried down the driveway. “Brienne, wait!”

“Leave me alone!” she shouted back, the tears in her voice shattering his heart into a thousand pieces. He broke into a sprint and stood in front of her, putting his hands out in front of her to stop her. “Don’t touch me!” she said with a bit back sob that threatened to rip itself past her lips. 

Jaime dropped his hands, fighting back the urge to hit the car beside him or the wall or the ground or anything else. Right now wasn’t about him, it wasn’t about his anger at his ex, at himself for not recognizing how cruel she could be… 

Brienne hastily wiped away her tears, wrapping her arms around herself and bowed her head, doing her best to make herself smaller, to disappear...

“I shouldn’t have come here,” she said with a voice thick with sorrow and tears. “I shouldn’t have come, Cersei’s right, I don’t belong here. I’m not- I’m not meant to be with these kinds of people. I don’t- I don’t know why you decided to be nice to me, I don’t know why the handsome Jaime Lannister choose Brienne the ugly beast, but I’m sick of wondering.”

Jaime swallowed his guilt and his anger and his tears. “Because you just-... because you’re  _ good _ , Brienne.” She finally lifted her head, just a bit. “Because I’m sick of assholes like Cersei and Euron and Margaery… But you, you’re smart and decent and just genuinely wholly  _ good _ .”

It was the truth, he realized with a heavy thud in his chest. When he was with her there was no nasty comments about other students or gossip or crude jokes that he rolled his eyes at while the rest of his friends laughed at. They talked about history, they talked about surfing, none of the laughed or smiled were at others expense…

He hasn’t been able to say that about any of his friends in a very long time...

Brienne lifted her head until their eyes finally found each other again. “And look, you were having fun.” She scoffed at him but offered nothing to the contrary. “You were. You were having fun at the beach, at the museum, you were having fun here until a bitter drunken bag ruined it… You just…” He sighed, fighting the urge to reach out and push a damp lock of hair from her face. “When you open up to people, sometimes you let the bad in with the good. That’s all.” Brienne nodded, then sniffed and wiped away the last of her tears. After a long moment she finally managed to mutter out, “I wanna go home…”

Jaime nodded, taking off his coat and draping it across her shoulders. It didn’t hang past her waist or completely envelop her like it had given it to Cersei, it actually seemed to fit her as perfectly as it fitted him, the same as his surfboard. What was perfect for him was perfect for her, what was custom made for him seemed to be designed for her as well...

After they got to the car and Brienne texted Podrick to stay and enjoy the party with Sansa, they were headed to her house. After a long stretch of silence she muttered out a string of words that left him rather confused. “You are too, ya know.”

“I’m what?” asked Jaime.

“A good person,” she answered. 

Jaime shook his head. “I’m not.”

“You are. You try to hide it behind smugness and snark, and I think you might have forgotten yourself, but you ARE a good person, Jaime. You just… like to hide that part of you for some reason.”

She said it with such truth, with such conviction that he almost  _ almost  _ believed her. But it was a lie. He wasn’t good, he wasn’t decent, he wasn’t anything she was projecting onto him. If he was good; he never would have made his bet. If he was brave; he would come clean. If he was decent; he wouldn’t worry about what Euron would say if he told him he didn’t want to do this anymore.

But he wasn’t any of those things. He was a coward. Nothing more. A coward with a regretful bet.

And this good, genuine, decent woman behind him would end up paying the price no matter who lost…

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	5. Chapter 5

Backslash, uppercut, parry, advance… 

Brienne grunted with every swing, sweat running down her brow in rivers as she and her opponent struck at one another with blunted steel. 

“Goddamit!” Pod snarled, gritting his teeth and raising his sword, whirling it down on what would have been a sharp cut across her shoulder if she hadn’t blocked in time. With a loud cry Brienne pushed back and then she was on him, raining down blows and strikes again and again without mercy faster and faster until, finally, he was on his knees and “I yield!” was shouted by her fellow senior.

She grinned as she stepped back, taking a much needed breath before she reached out her hand and offered it to the brown eyed boy who took it with an eager grin.

“You’re doing a LOT better,” Brienne told him, wiping her sweat soaked brow with the back of her hand. “I mean it, Pod. You almost had me beat.”

She smiled at her brother for all intents and purposes as he beamed with joy. “Come on.” Brienne picked up the sword he had dropped and tossed it to him. “Coach Selmy said we only had the gym until first period.”

“You’re doing a lot better too,” said Pod as they put the practice swords back in their scabbards and locked them in the back room. “I mean it. You seem a lot more confident these past few weeks.”

A blush crept up her cheeks that she fought against showing while they made their way to their individual locker rooms. “Thank you, Podrick.”

He wasn’t the first person to compliment her these past two weeks. Pod, her coach, even some of her teammates who previously had done nothing but ignore her. They told her she walked taller, she smiled more, even her swordsmanship seemed to be improving when she was already, what she thought, at the top of her game. She even, according to her father, ‘stopped trying to make herself small’, whatever meant. But whatever she was doing, there seemed to be a single consensus in what the cause of the change was; a golden haired boy with emerald green eyes and a smile as bright as the sun.

Two weeks passed since the dreadful party that, alright, wasn’t that bad until Cersei ruined everything. She had been having fun talking with Sansa, some red headed boy even came over and hit on her, something she NEVER experienced before. She even dreamed that she and Jaime might go get something to eat after the party, like real friends did, that girls a normal height and a pretty face got to do with their friends...

Of course a drunk Cersei Lyons put a stop to that and she spent the night after the party nuzzled under her covers ignoring her dad’s inquiries as to what went wrong. But then Jaime texted her and asked if she was alright and the two ended up talking back and forth until late in the night, the same thing they did nearly every night. It was almost, no not almost, it WAS exactly like having a friend. 

They made each other laugh and smile, she listened patiently to his rants about his father, they got into heated debates about history… It was all a little scary talking to THE Jaime Lannister but Brienne would have been lying if she admitted she didn’t enjoy it immensely...

After she and Podrick showered and changed they headed out into the large crowded monolith that was Kingslanding High. But something was off, Brienne realized when she walked the long crowded halls to her locker. Something was different. Something was obviously, abundantly obvious, different. 

Strangers who never spoke to Brienne in her whole life had a smile for her. Almost everyone she passed had some form of ‘congratulations’ on their lips, sincere from fellow outcasts and sneering from those who were closer to Cersei and… and Jaime’s level of popularity.

“Podrick…” she muttered, looking around her, easily able to see over the heads of almost all the other students who were looking at her. “Does something seem strange to you?”

“You rock,” a Naath girl with a nose ring and a headful of black curls told her with a smile and a clap on her broad shoulder before he could answer.

“... You mean aside from the fact that you apparently ‘rock’ now?” Podrick answered, just as befuddled as she was. 

Brienne tried her best to put it out of her mind until she reached her locker, usually plain and nondescript, covered in congratulations, well wishes, and one very large gaudy pink envelope with a golden pipe cleaner crown glued to it addressed to her. Cautiously as if she were afraid it might bite, she slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a glitter filled card that told her, in no uncertain terms,

“I’m nominated for fucking prom queen?”

Podrick glanced at the card, furrowing his brow. “Maybe it’s a mistake?”

“There’s no other ‘Brienne’ in this school, like… why would they think I’m…” She shook her head, shoving the card back in the envelope. “It’s a joke. It has to be, it’s a prank or something.”

“Is it a prank that Coach Selmy is into as well?” Podrick asked, looking at one of the many well wishes on her locker from her swordsmanship coach himself. “Brie, I think… I think this is real…”

“Of course it’s real!” 

Brienne turned and saw Sansa and Jon, both of them bursting with excitement and Margaery who looked like she was on the verge of a cruel comment but, thankfully, for the time being kept her opinion on the matter to herself.

Sansa threw her arms around Brienne, squeeing rather loudly as she hugged her as tight as she could while the blonde stood there frozen. “I’m so happy for you!”

“...Thank you?” 

A text alert brought them both back to their senses and Margaery grabbed hold of Sansa’s arm. “911 from Cersei.”

“And?”

“She’s our friend,” the brown eyed girl reminded the red head sharply.

“Yeah well…” Sansa went over and stood beside Podrick, holding her head up high. “Things change.” 

With a roll of her eyes Margaery stormed off, leaving Brienne thinking that Sansa standing up to Cersei wasn’t the only thing beginning to change.

* * *

“He...! Broke...! Up...! With ** _ME_ **!”

Margaery’s eyes went wide as she stared down at the sobbing snotty nosed blonde sitting in her convertible. “You’re kidding…”

“Robert, he- he met some stupid fat SLUT named Bessie with these obnoxious double D tits on the Weirnet and he-...! He-...!” Cersei’s wailing prevented her from continuing any further. 

Running a hand through her hair she looked around the parking lot which was filling up with more and more onlookers.

Fighting back a blush, Margaery cleared her throat. “Sweetie, calm down okay?”

“God and the drinking, that’s all he did!” she cried, ignoring her friends please. “All day long; he just drank and yelled and lifted those stupid weights! And apparently hook up with big breasted whores on Ravengram!”

“I’m sorry, Cerse. Really. But you wanna hear my opinion?” She waited until her friend slowed her tears long enough to be relatively calm. “You deserve a lot better than him.”

Cersei sniffed and nodded, pouting her lips. “I do don’t I? You’re a really good friend Margaery. You-.”

Cersei looked over her friends shoulder, any pitiful sorrow in her expression melting and was quickly replaced by a confused fury. Margaery turned and saw a school administrator carrying two large signs, one saying ‘Vote Cersei Lyons for Prom Queen’ and the other that said to ‘Vote Brienne Tarth for Prom Queen.’

“...Did I miss something?”

* * *

“This school does not do subtle well do they?”

Brienne turned from the pink crowded atrociously that was now her locker and saw Jaime standing in front of her.

The corner of her plump lips tugged upwards. “Guess not… So you heard the news?”

“I did.” His smile didn’t quite reach his dazzling green eyes. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I just wanna know who the hell nominated me I mean obviously it’s just a joke or something,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I mean I don’t-.”

“Why do you have such a hard time believing that people actually like you? That not everyone hates you?”

She shrugged and stared down at the floor beneath her feet. “When you have enough people tell you you’re not worthy of anything but ridicule… eventually you start to believe it.”

Jaime frowned at her for a moment. He looked so guilty… Why did he look so guilty? “Those people are wrong. They’re dead wrong, Brienne. Whenever made you feel that, including me, they were wrong to make you feel that way.

And then he was hugging her. 

It was a soft gentle squeeze, nothing more, but it sent her mind whirling and she prayed he couldn’t feel her heartbeat pounding against her ribs as he pressed himself up against her while she stood frozen, arms stiff by her side. Thoughts that girls who looked like her didn’t ever get to picture when an attractive boy got so close to her she could smell his expensive cologne raced through her mind. Slowly, she brought her hands up and hugged him back, fingertips just barely touching his well muscled back.

She wanted it to end, save herself any more embarrassment, but at the same time… he was so warm, and his touch was so comforting and he smelled so good, and he was so… Jaime.

“I’m really proud of you,” he told her in a low whisper only she was meant to hear, said with such conviction for a moment she might have actually believed him.

“Thank you,” she finally managed to mutter back, noting how he too shuddered when her breath gently blew against his ear.

That was a benefit, she supposed, of being only an inch taller than the person you were hugging. Warm breath sighs against your throat and ear and… and Gods please just end it but not for another thousand years.

When they finally broke apart Brienne blushed a brilliant crimson and stared at her feet for a moment.

“Listen, Brienne.” His voice was thick with what a more beautiful girl would have called nerves and something else she couldn’t quite identify, but she was sure girls who looked like her didn’t hear much if it. “I um… I have a game today after school and then afterwards I-.”

“No parties,” she begged finally looking up at him. “Please?”

“No no, of course not. But I did have tickets to… something.”

The gleam in his eye drew a smile from her. “What’s ‘something’?”

“Something is something,” he replied with a smirk. “And I was wondering if you could do me another favor?”

“Sure.”

He reached into his bag and pulled out a black and red jersey with a three headed dragon on the front and ‘Lannister, 18’ stitched on the back. “Will you wear my jersey?”

Brienne’s eyes went wide with shock. She reached out with a huge freckled hand and pulled back like it might burn her. “But that’s… I-... Jaime, people will know-.”

“Know what? That I asked you to wear my jersey, yes I hope so. Since you’ll be wearing it…”

She bit her lip for a moment. For one, ashamed, moment she thought it might be a trick. It might be all a jest, a big joke; look at Brienne the Beauty wearing the star quarterbacks jersey, what a loser to think this meant anything.

But he was sincere. Brienne knew he was. He wouldn’t trick her, he wouldn’t make a mockery of her. She trusted him…

Brienne took a deep breath before she grabbed the smooth fabric from his outstretched hand and, after a long moment of hesitation, pulled it on over her T-shirt. 

She didn’t swim in it like other girls did. It didn’t drape sexily around her shoulders, it fit. Very well actually, like it was made just for her.

He smiled at her; and it was soft and sweet and kind and everything she never dreamed anyone much less Jaime Lannister would give her. “You look great, Brienne.”

“Thank you,” she muttered, the heat in her face almost overwhelming. “For everything, Jaime.”

Jaime reaches out and rubbed her big broad shoulders and her heart fluttered wildly. “Of course…”

_ This is crazy, _ she screamed at herself before she forced herself forward and just barely pressed her lips against his cheek. Her whole face painted brilliant scarlet she quickly turned and half ran/half walked to her next class…

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	6. Chapter 6

24-14, Kingslanding High.

It wasn’t a huge win nor did the team need it. They already had the playoffs cinched, and it had been a relatively slow moving game that utilized more of the defense than the offense. But for Jaime the game had meant the world and he might as well have won the Super Bowl. 

Every time he looked up at the bleachers and saw her wearing his jersey and a shy smile or every time he heard her voice cheering for him as he made a spectacular throw to his running back 25 yards out or when he noticed how she jumped out of her seat, beautiful blue eyes wide and terrified, as he was tossed to the ground in a particularly brutal looking sack, something Cersei had never done, Jaime was reminded why the game meant so much to him.

He cared about making a good impression on her. For the first time since he was a child and he thought if he was good enough his father might come to one of his games he cared about winning, about playing good, about playing honorably and fairly… 

When the clock finally ticked down to zero Jaime wore a grin as wide as the field itself and turned to Brienne who was standing and cheering for them right along with the rest of the crowd, blue eyes alight and beaming at the man whose jersey she wore. Jaime sent her a smug smirk and a wink, laughing when her face turned crimson and she quickly looked away from the quarterback, the corner of her plump lips shifting into a shy smile that melted Jaime far past the point of return. 

Half an hour later Jaime had showered and was pulling on the last of his street clothes, hardly able to nor wanting to hold back the joy that was as clear as a bell on his face as he readied himself for his night out with Brienne. She was going to love the surprise. He knew she would…

As he was lacing up his sneakers he heard Euron come out of the crowded showers and any smile disappeared as soon as he heard the cornerback smugly greet him with a “good idea, Lannister.”

“What are you talking about?” Jaime demanded as he dabbed a dash of cologne on his neck. 

“I’m talking about you asking Tarth to the game and letting her be seen in the quarterbacks jersey the day she’s nominated. Smart move. One I would have made to be honest…”

“That’s not why I asked her to wear it,” he answered sharply.

Euron snickered and clapped a hard hand him on his shoulder that he quickly threw off. “Sure it’s not. But hey, she seemed to fill it out rather nice, maybe you could ask her to try out for the team. A face like that would scare any player on the field.”

“Yeah well if she did join the team she’d probably get more tackles than you,” Jaime shot back as he threw his cleats into his locker with a loud thunk. 

The dark haired man studied him for a second. His lips curled into a challenging sneer. “What, are you her knight in shining armor now?” he demanded, crossing his broad arms over his chest. 

“Come on, Greyjoy,” Jon begged as he looked between his two friends. “We had a good game, we’re all tired… Just drop it.”

“You wanna bang the freak?” The blue eyed man continued as if he hadn’t heard Jon’s pleas. “Is that it?”

Jaime whipped around, hands curling into a tight fist. “Stop talking about her like that,” he barked, gaining the attention of half the locker room. “We’re just friends.”

“Oh so you don’t?” His voice reeked with careless amusement. “Well you mind if I throw my hat into the ring then? I mean we’d have to do it in the dark with her face down but those lips and those legs? That could be quite the ride.”

“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Jaime roared, pushing him back against the lockers so hard they nearly toppled over. Before he could so much as blink Euron had launched himself back at Jaime, grabbing hold his his shirt and pulling him towards him but before either could make another move Jon threw himself in between the two men, doing his best to keep the fight at arm's length. 

“Screw you, Lannister!” Euron yelled as two other teammates grabbed his arms to hold him at bay. Jon stood in front of the blonde man doing his best to keep him from attacking again. “For four years I’ve watched you walk around here thinking you’re the Warrior Himself! Perfect clothes, perfect looks, perfect girlfriend, all star quarterback… Well guess what?” He wrenched himself out of the grasp his teammates had him in and jammed a finger in Jaime’s face that the blonde slapped away. “This is one contest you’re gonna fucking lose. You’re going down, asshole!”

Jaime yanked himself free of Jon’s grip and grabbed his bag before storming out of the locker room, hushed mutters and whispers following him. He carried his foul mood and heated temper all the way to the parking lot until his eyes fell on the tall blonde in a black and red jersey waiting by his car. 

All at once any anger, any hatred for his one time friend, any enmity vanished and a joyful lightness he’d been missing these past few months filled him. A smile replaced his scowl as he walked over to her, calling out her name to announce his arrival. 

“You played really well tonight,” she told him with a friendly smile as he threw his bag into the back seat. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“Of course. Thanks for wearing my jersey.”

“Oh. Um you’re welcome. Do you want it back?” 

Before Jaime could protest she had grabbed the bottom of the jersey and started to pull it off. Her tank top underneath stick to the fabric and a sliver of pale well muscled abs showed and for a moment all he could imagine was running his tongue between the tight creases on her stomach while she whimpered his name and rolled her hips...

Clearing his throat and willing away that image, he shook his head. “No no, you um… you can keep it. For tonight, I’m gonna need it back next week but you can keep it on I mean, for the-...”

“While we hang out?” she offered with another one of those adorable shy smiles that reduced him to a puddle as she pulled the jersey back down again.

“While we hang out,” Jaime agreed before he walked over to the passenger side of the car and opened the door for her and bowed lowly. “Your carriage, My Lady. 

She muttered a thank you as a hint of color painted her pale cheeks. Gods he would never tire of being able to make her blush so easily.

“So where are we going?” Brienne asked once they had been driving a while. “You said you got tickets to something.”

Jaime flashed her a grin they could cut though steel only so he could see a smidge of red on her pale skin. “I do have tickets to something.”

“And you’re not gonna tell me what it is?”

“Not a chance, Babe.”

“For probably the hundredth time this week,” she said, now with far more amusement than annoyance at the nickname. “My name is Brienne.”

“And like  ** _I_ ** have said a hundred times, babe suits you.” Before he could let his nerves stop him,  _ since when do I get nervous around girls? _ he reached over and grabbed hold of her calloused but gentle hand and brought the back of it to his lips. “You’re my babe.”

He laughed at the bright crimson that ran from the top of her head down her face and past her neck. Jaime grinned at her as he pulled into a crowded parking lot of a large arena. “You’re cute when you blush.”

The comment made her flush harder but the corner of her lips tugged upwards into that adorable shy smile that could have melted the wall itself. After a moment Brienne turned to him and that shy smile shifted into something else. Something one might have described as almost provocative. 

“Well you can be rather cute yourself when you’re trying to make me go red in the face,” she said with what one could almost call a purr. 

Jaime drew his bottom lip into his teeth and he found himself wondering just how far that blush traveled and imagining all the different ways he could turn her skin red like kissing her so fiercely that her lips were the same color of the stain she wore the night of the party, or leaving tiny red marks all along her neck and chest where he would suck and kiss and lick at her pale white skin, or making the inside of her soft smooth thighs scratched and rubbed red courtesy of the scruff on his face…

But now wasn’t the time for that, he told himself as he shook away those thoughts and willed the stirring between his legs to settle down. Now was the time for his surprise. After he opened her door and the two of them made their way inside, he pulled out his phone to the ticket taker and led a curious Brienne into a large oval arena that was near close to bursting with people all talking excitedly.

“Jaime where are we?” she asked. Grinning he, finally, showed her his phone. He laughed as he watched her eyes go wide and she whipped her head up to stare slack jawed at him. “A- a swordsmanship tourney?” He laughed at how high pitched her voice had gotten. “We’re at a professional swordsmanship tourney?”

“I figured it might be a nice way to celebrate your nomination.”

Rather then respond she decided to throw her arms around him and pull him into a tight nearly bone crushing hug. Without hesitation Jaime wrapped his arms around her and before he could stop himself he buried his face in the crock of her neck, inhaling deeply. She didn’t smell like the almost overbearing expensive scent of sharp lemon like Cersei liked to wear but rather there was a subtle hint of sweetened raspberries that seemed to fit Brienne just right. It was nice.  _ Really _ nice, if Jaime was being honest with himself…

When she finally realized what she was doing she quickly stepped back, her face beet red as she looked down at the floor. He would have been lying if he said he didn’t already miss the smell of raspberries and the feel of her pressed against him.

“Sorry,” she muttered, biting her lip to keep a jubilant excited smile from spreading. “I just- I’ve never been… I mean I watch the bouts on TV all the time but actually WATCHING one…”

He just just smiled at her. “Come on,” Jaime said, putting a hand on her back and leading her to their seats just four rows away from the field. When the lights dimmed and the announcer welcomed them all to the Dragon Pit Arena any restraint she had in her smile disappeared and a wide beaming grin took its place. 

No matter how into the bout she was, she would always take the time to patiently explain any rules to him or clarify any questions, without annoyance that he was interrupting her cheering when Aemon Targaryen the Dragonknight would score a point or her booing when Gregor, The Mountain that Rode’ Clegane, the apparent ‘bad boy’ of swordsmanship, got in a hit that more than like would be overturned for breaking some rule or another.

At one point during one of the matches he turned and simply watched her. The sheer elation as she watched the fights lit up her face and made her eyes shine like pools of brilliantly blue sapphires and the joy and excitement on her face as Syrio Ferrel and Sandor Clegane themselves stepped out onto the field was a bright light that filled Jaime’s heart past the point of containment, a light that had never had the pleasure to warm him before but now, sitting beside her, watching as she smiled and laughed and cheered, it was all he could do to keep from staring slack jawed and wide eyed. 

Brienne was beautiful. Maybe not in the traditional sense like Cersei, but she had her own sort of beauty he knew only those with the privilege of getting to truly know her could see. How could he have ever thought her ugly? How could he have ever thought of her as a ‘beast?’ How could he have ever made a bet that would just end up hurting her? 

Maybe Brienne would win. She could win Prom Queen and then be would never have to tell her the truth. It was a slim chance but the outcasts in the school, Cersei’s bullying victims, Jon, Sansa and if she went with Jaime... they would all vote for her, he knew they would. She had to have a chance, she had to win. Not for the stupid bet but for her happiness, for his… Jaime didn’t want to be without her. He wasn’t sure he would know how to be without her anymore to be honest...

Afterwards as the two of them sat on the hood of his car Jaime watched amused as she re-enacted some of the more memorable moments with a shadow sword grinning wildly, any shyness long forgotten. 

She leaned back with a content sigh, grinning over at him. “Thank you for tonight, Jaime. Truly. I can’t begin to tell you what this means to me.”

“I’m just happy you enjoyed it,” he said as he took a small handful of the popcorn they had shared. “I can’t believe you’ve never gone to one of these though.”

“Well me and my brother always wanted to,” she admitted. “We talked about it, but…” She bit her bottom lip. “He died before we could ever make solid plans.”

Jaime bowed his head for a moment. Just from the way she said it he knew he had been trusted with a secret she shared with few others. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you. I was eight when he drowned outside of Evenfall, he was twelve… That’s why we moved to Kingslanding actually,” she admitted. “My dad couldn’t stand living so close to that part of the sea anymore, plus my mom died when I was four and Tarth just wasn’t very happy for him anymore.”

Jaime nodded slowly before he looked down at the shiny red lain of the car. His fingers were so close to hers all he had to do was reach out with one and he would be touching her… “My mom died giving birth to Tyrion when I was two.”

“Jaime, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright.” He shrugged carelessly. “I don’t even remember her to be honest, just a friendly face with blonde hair smiling and laughing. I don’t even know if it’s a real memory or not but that’s what I picture when I think of her.”

Without warning Brienne reached out and rubbed his back with strong but gentle, gentler then Cersei’s, fingers. “It’s real if you believe it’s real,” she told him softly. 

A sad smile flickered to his lips before he cast his gaze downwards. “After she was gone, everyone said my father changed. He used to smile and laugh, he had fun with her but afterwards he became this bitter hateful person who wants me to follow in his path.”

“What path is that?”

“Go to the Citadel, be a business major like he was then work at his firm until he retires and I take over.”

“But you don’t want that,” she asked.

“I don’t know. It wouldn’t be bad, I guess. Seven figure salary is a nice incentive for a start but… At Winterfell. they have a school there with the best history program in the country. I could get my masters in teaching there too.”

“So go there,” she shrugged. 

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s… because it’s not what’s expected of me,” he told her. Jaime shook his head and gazed down at the car again. “You wouldn’t understand.”

He could feel her gaze shift from curious and understanding to one of disbelief with its edges flames in anger. “I wouldn’t understand what it’s like not to meet expectations? Me?” He turned his face back up to look at her. “Jaime when I was a little girl all I did was dream about a handsome strong man who would come defend me against bullies and sweep me off my feet and call me beautiful and treat me… treat me the way you’ve been doing these last few weeks, like I’m not only a girl but a… but a pretty girl.” 

He prayed the shame and guilt he felt wasn’t as visible on the outside as it was on the inside. 

“But when you have to wear your brothers hand me downs and shop in the boy department because nothing in the girls section would fit, when you’re told ‘hey don’t try out for cheerleading, you’re too big for the other girls to lift, maybe try swordsmanship instead’, when you get mocked for trying to act feminine and then sneered at when you decide to just try acting like a boy-.”

“Brienne, I’m sorry,” he cut her off. He knew if he heard anymore his heart would crumble past the point of no return and his secrets would come pouring out of him like a broken dam. “I’m sorry, I never should have said that…”

He watched as any anger or tenseness faded from her as quick as it came and an apologetic smile took its place. “You’re alright. I’m sorry I got upset.”

“It’s understandable,” he told her with his own soft smile that made her cheeks glow slightly and this time it was her turn to look down at the hood of the car. Jaime reached over and lifted her head up with a finger under her chin and turned her face towards him. Her plump lips were parted just slightly and her brilliantly blue eyes were wide and beautiful… 

He leaned in slowly, pleasantly surprised to find that she leaned in as well, eyes fluttering shut. He could feel her sweet smelling breath on her lips and just as he felt her soft lips beneath his she spoke.

“This isn’t all just so you can get my vote for prom king right?” she half whispered with a breathy chuckle.

Jaime froze then, pulling back. The prom… the fucking prom, for a minute he had actually forgotten about the prom, the bet, Euron, the reason why he and Brienne had even started hanging out in the first place…

“Jaime?” Brienne slowly opened her eyes. “Are… are you alright?”

He let out a deep breath and leaned back even further. “Yeah… yeah I’m okay. Are- are you?” She nodded. “Good. That’s good… look I’m, I-... I just remembered I got something at home I really… really need to get back to doing so you- you wanna get going?”

She nodded again and then after he helped her down from the hood the two of them got in his car and with disappointment filling the two of them, they both headed back home…

Please Review!!!

  
  



	7. Chapter 7

“Podrick, am I kissable?”

Brienne watched unamused as her friend coughed and choked and gasped, setting down the half-eaten burger he was eating at the nearly empty diner she was working at. Apart from Podrick sitting at the counter there were only two older women sipping coffees and conversing quietly in the corner which meant that she could take a small break from her work. 

She waited until he was done wheezing before she quirked a brow at him. “Are you done?”

“Yeah… Yeah sorry, I just… I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat and turned to look at her. “I-... I don’t know, Brie. You’re… you.” A faint blush stole up her face and she lowered her eyes. “I don’t mean that in a bad way!” he corrected. “Just you’re you and I’m me. But maybe if you weren’t  _ you _ and I wasn’t  _ me  _ and we weren’t  _ us… _ We’ve been best friends since we were ten, and I’ve lived with you since I was fourteen…”

“No I know I just…” Brienne sighed as she grabbed a rag and began wiping down the counter. “Last week when me and Jaime went to that fight I really thought… then I had to make that dumb comment and I don’t know if I ruined it or not.”

“You didn’t ruin anything.” The brown eyed boy offered her a soft smile. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Brienne.”

“And how’s that?” 

“Like you’re the only light in his world. He likes you, Brienne. He  _ likes _ likes you, maybe even the other L word too.”

Her blush ran deeper and a shy grin made its way to her plain homely face. “You really think so?” she asked, almost hating how hopeful and girlish her voice got.

“I do. But if he’s too stupid to realize it then he’s not worth pining over.”

The friends shared another smile before Podrick checked his phone and flinched. “Oh crap, I gotta go. I’m taking Sansa out to the movies tonight and I gotta find something not awful to wear.”

The brown haired boy handed his sister all but in name a ten spot to pay for the burger and headed out, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Podrick thought Jaime liked her. More than that he thought Jaime might even love her. She had to bite back a most un-Brienne-ish girlish scream before she dipped low behind the counter, clutching an unopened stack of drink lids to her chest and grinning wildly. She had to call Sansa and discuss this- she knew Jaime longer and would know more about these kinds of situations.

Was this what it felt like? To be relatively normal? To have friends to gossip about boys with, to have boys be in like (or love) with you, to have them nearly kiss you after a date? Jaime gave all this to her. She still wasn’t sure why he approached her that day in the gym and persistently followed her to the parking lot but she would never be able to thank him enough…

Just as she went to grab her phone to text the redhead she heard the tiny bell above the door ring. Doing her best to contain her beaming grin she stood up to greet the customer. When she saw who it was, however, it became relatively easy to hide any semblance of joy or happiness.

“Hey, Brienne,” Euron said with a soft, almost shy smile. He wore a ‘Brienne for Queen’ button on his breast, the same that quite an alarming number of students, more than she thought possible, wore at her school. 

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, going around the counter to pick up Podricks plate and glass. 

“Nothing just, I- I kinda wanted to talk to you. If- if it’s alright?” 

He sounded so shy, it almost reminded Brienne of herself but he had been nothing but unkind and cruel since the day she walked into Kingslanding Elementary at ten years old. 

_ But so did Jaime… _

Brienne sighed and motioned to him to let Euron know it was alright to continue talking. His sweet shy smile widened. “Thanks. But hey I- I know I don’t really come off as the nicest guy in the world, and you have every right to not like me or trust me, but I was kinda hoping you’d forget about that for a second so I could ask you something?”

“What do you want, Euron?” she demanded, not really in any sort of mood for mockery or scorn.

“To go to prom? With you?” Brienne froze as she reached for a box of straws so she was able to refill them. “I mean I know this must come as a shock but…” Euron stuck his hands in the pocket of his coat and shrugged, looking down at the white and black tiled floor. “I dunno, you’re actually pretty cool to hang around with, you’re funny, you’re really sweet...”

Brienne rolled her eyes and shook her head, slamming the straws down in their proper place. “If you wanted to make fun of me you didn’t have to come to my work, you could have just waited until school.”

“I’m not making fun of you, I promise.” He sounded so sincere, like Jaime did. “But is that a no?”

“That’s a hell no.”

Euron shrugged and sat down at the counter. “Alright I understand. I just thought that since you forgave Jaime for everything you might be willing to forgive me…”

Brienne sighed, running a hand through her short brittle hair. He had a point, unfortunately. She had forgiven Jaime for the insults and mockery and she had gained not only whatever she and Jaime were, but a group of friends for it. Hell even Podrick now had a girlfriend because she was willing to set aside everything Jaime did to her throughout her years of going to school with them, and Euron had been nothing but decent to her since that day on the beach… Didn’t she owe it to Euron to extend her forgiveness to him too?

“Fine,” she said after a spell of silence and she almost laughed at the grateful smile he wore. “I forgive you too. But I’m still not keen on the prom though.”

“No I get it. I just hope that you saying no has nothing to do with Jaime…”

Brienne swallowed hard as she reached for the container of lids, doing her best to keep her tone and expression as neutral as possible. “What about Jaime?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“Well nothing just… I mean he’s running around telling everyone he still has this thing for Cersei.” She missed the smug grin and the mischievous look in his eye when she had her back turned. “Hell he even has her as his home screen still...”

No. No that was a lie, Jaime, he showed her his home screen, it was a selfie he and Brienne took at the fight. It was one of the only photos of herself that she liked and she unknowingly made the same picture her home screen as well. They laughed about it the next day and he told her she had a great laugh, something she was never complimented about before. Why would he change it back?

Sudden tears rushed to her eyes that she blinked away. Brienne ducked her head down so Euron wouldn’t see, slamming the lids down in its dispenser. 

“I don’t know,” he continued with another shrug. “Maybe I’m wrong, ya know? I just don’t want to see you get hurt when there’s no reason for it.” She said nothing, just grabbed a small tray of ketchup bottles and began to set them down every few seats along the counter. Euron stood up from the counter and gave her another sweet shy smile. “Brienne?” He waited until she was looking at him. She would have been lying to herself if she didn’t admit he was quite handsome in a rebellious punk-rock kind of way… “Think about what I said; about the prom? I think we could have a pretty fun time.”

With another smile he turned and headed out of the diner leaving Brienne alone with her thoughts. 

Could she be wrong? Could Podrick? Sure they almost kissed and he gave her his jersey and yeah he took her to the museum and to a real swordsmanship fight and the beach and fine, Brienne and him had talked nightly for hours at a time until one of their fathers ordered them off the phone but she was still Brienne. She was still ugly, she was still large and ungainly, her breasts were still small and her lips were still huge and her hair still looked like thin brittle straw (her mother used to wash and care for the dry hair so it was a bed of soft feathery curls instead and promised Brienne to show her how to manage it on her own when she was old enough so it would be as soft and pretty as her mother managed to make it but she died before she had the chance, and Brienne never had any female friends who could help teach her).

And Cersei Lyons was... well… Cersei Lyons. She was beautiful, she was every man’s dream, she was perfect and gorgeous and curvy with long thick golden hair and a face that wouldn’t have been out of place on a runway, and Jaime has been her shadow since kindergarten. Hell they were even side by side in the nursery hospital thanks to being born on the same day and they had gone to every single school function and dance together even when they were just friends. Cersei was Jaime’s first love, she was his first kiss, she was his first… everything, and on top of that they even looked alike with stunningly good looks, golden blonde hair and deep dark emerald green eyes. Why wouldn’t he still be hung up on her?

The rest of the day passed by rather sourly. She spilled a container of the shake mix, she cut her finger when she was slicing tomatoes, her relief was late and all the whole Eurons words echoed in mind but so did Podricks. 

He told her Jaime looked at her like she was the only light in the world but… but if Euron was telling the truth and Jaime really did have lingering feelings for Cersei…

_ He also said he wasn’t sure _ , a small hopeful voice inside said. If he misheard something then there was still a chance. A chance at  **what** Brienne wasn’t quite sure but there WAS something there. She was sure of it…

The next day was a Saturday which meant no school which used to mean a day inside her room reading and practicing her swordsmanship technique. But now no school meant an outing with Jaime. This time the two of them went to a movie, a two hour film telling the story of the last Dragons adventures in Essos, a film that she could tell had Jaime itching to lean over and explain every single inaccuracicy from the way her Dothraki husband was presented as an honorable noble hero who respected and loved his silver haired Khaleesi to the filmmakers leaving out the the queens belief in Targaryen blood supremacy.

That joyful almost child-like spark in his eyes when Brienne and him talked about the accuracies and inaccuracies afterwards over burgers was enough to make her melt. It made her happy, she realized, when Jaime was happy. Seeing him laugh and smile and talk so passionately about a subject that it couldn’t help but infect you as well made her warmer then if she had sunk into a hot bath.

Jaime told her once that Cersei would just roll her eyes and tune him out when he started to talk about history, she would insult him, call him a dork, tell him that his passion was a useless boring subject and Brienne would never be able to understand that. If you cared about someone wouldn’t you want them to be happy? Why would you tear down something important to them? The way he kept smiling at her during the swordsmanship fight, Brienne was sure about one thing; the way she felt when he talked over dinner about the most powerful Khal in ancient civilization was the way he felt when she went on for an hour about the different techniques the fighters had used.

Later on as they sat on the mostly abandoned beach, watching as the sun went down below Blackwater Bay Jaime turned to her and the way he smiled at her sent her heart fluttering. 

“I had a lot of fun tonight,” he told her. 

“Me too.” Another blush stole up her cheeks. “I- I always have a lot of fun with you though.”

“Trust me, the feelings mutual.” Gods that smile… Was there ever a more perfect looking man then him? Jaime suddenly looked nervous, gnawing at his bottom lip and averting his eyes as he reached into his pocket. “Speaking of having fun together…” He took a deep breath and opened his closed fist. 

In his hand was a small metal sword on a keychain. The sword itself had tiny streaks of red and black to replicate what a Valerian Steel sword might look like and it’s hilt were three golden lions and a small faux ruby in the center. It was a sword she knew well, very well in fact, considering she and Jaime studied the actual weapon for what seemed like hours on their first date.

“Oathkeeper?” Brienne asked, a smile dawning on her face.

He nodded. “It’s yours.”

“Jaime, this is so sweet.” Brienne reached out and took it from him, ignoring the sparks she felt when her fingers brushed against his palm. Even in keychain form the weapon was beautiful. “Thank you.”

He still looked rather nervous and when she asked what was the matter she simply told him to turn the sword around. Brienne did as she was told and her heart jumped into her throat as she saw a single word written in gold marker on the sword. 

** _Prom?_ **

“It’s- it’s washable,” Jaime stuttered out as Brienne stared slack jawed at the tiny word written on the tiny sword. “So if- if you don’t want to go with me or you just want it clean it’ll just take a little soap and water but… yeah, I-... yes?”

Tears leapt to her brilliantly blue eyes that no amount of blinking would wash away. Realizing she still had to answer she looked towards him and nodded. “Yes,” she managed to finally say in a teary whisper.

“Yes?” 

Brienne nodded again, beaming smiles appearing on both their faces. “Yes!”

Jaime let out a joyful cry, Brienne laughed, and then he was hugging her. The two of them held each other tight for the longest moment and while she relished the feel of his arms wrapped around her, the way he looked at her afterwards was a hundred times better and a thousand times more frightening. Like she was as Pocrick said, the only light in his world and Jaime not only knew that but was in awe of that as well.

Neither of them moved, neither of them even breathed, and then slowly, almost punishingly slowly, Jaime leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. 

Brienne froze but only for a moment before she kissed him back, all nervous trembling lips and clacking teeth and too much sucking on his lips.

She had no idea what she was doing. Sure she heard girls talk about kissing in the locker room at school but hearing about it was one thing, actually doing it was another. 

But, surprisingly, Jaime didn’t seem to mind and his well practiced lips more than made up for her own lack of experience. He buried his hands in her hair and pulled her in tighter and she wrapped her arms around him and held him as tight as their current positions would allow. When he dipped his tongue into her mouth and brushed it against hers she moaned softly against his lips, barely loud enough for him to hear, but apparently that had been the right thing to do because his hands were suddenly around her waist and he pulled her in tighter so their chests were pressed against each other and she was practically straddling him. 

The realization seemed to hit her all at once; that she was sharing her very first kiss with Jaime Lannister of all people on a beach at sunset after he just asked her to prom and took her on a date. Gods this was perfect. It was better than she had ever pictured it, it was better than she ever dreamt her first kiss would be… 

But like all dreams it came to an end and they both, reluctantly, pulled away from each other. Brienne clutched at his shirt as they rested their foreheads against one another. 

“First kiss?” Jaime asked, a slight pant in his voice and she nodded, blue eyes still closed. “You’re very good at it.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” she all but whispered with a soft laugh. Even thought she couldn’t see it she knew he was smiling.

“You’ll get better,” he said. “I’ll make sure you get lots of practice.” 

He laughed as her face went red with blush and she finally opened her eyes, meeting his. He looked happy and content and, oddly, a little bit sad too. He buried his hand in her short hair. “I don’t wanna ruin this day,” he whispered, more to himself then her. 

“I could get a text saying my house burnt down and this day still wouldn’t be ruined,” she said and he laughed again.

Gods she loved that sound.

Jaime gnawed at his lip while his fingers lightly played with her hair and ran against the nape of her neck, looking at her for a moment before he got a steely eyed determined look in his eye. “Tomorrow,” he said. 

“What about tomorrow?” Brienne asked.

“I wanna take you out tomorrow.”

“Okay. Where?”

“Right here. I-... I wanna be honest with you, Babe.” He kissed her again, a soft light one on her forehead. “My babe. I’ll be honest with you tomorrow, I swear it. But… let’s just enjoy the rest of the night okay?”

Curious, and a little worried, Brienne agreed to the date and then settled against him chest while he wrapped his arm around her and held her tight as they watched the sun sink below the horizon. When it was finally dark they made their way up to his car, after one or two more ‘practice sessions’ on the beach that left her lips red and plump and an urge for his hand to slip up and beneath her shirt. He bought her ice cream and her entire soul seemed to light up while her face blushed crimson as Jaime told the salesman that he would take a chocolate for himself and then a cookie dough ‘for my girlfriend’.

When they finally made it back to her house they saw a car parked in her driveway that apparently Jaime recognized because his hands tightened on the steering wheel and he glared at the expensive looking black SUV.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Jaime snarled and before Brienne could ask who it was he meant he had wrenched the door open and slammed it shut. Brienne quickly followed him into the apartment, getting more and more curious as well as annoyed at the way he was acting.

“What the hell are you trying to pull, Greyjoy!” Jaime barked as he stormed into the living room where Euron was sitting between a friendly looking Selwyn and Podrick.

He quickly stood up from the couch as Jaime approached, hands raised in surrender. “It’s nice to see you too, brother.” Euron looked past the angry blonde and smiled at Brienne. “Hey, Brie. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to get something to eat?”

“She doesn’t wanna go anywhere with you!” Jaime snapped before she could even answer.

“Jaime, relax!” Brienne urged him, eyes wide with shock. “We’re just friends!”

“You’re not friends, it’s bullshit!” Jaime spat.

She raised her brow at him as Selwyn stood up, trying to subtlety place himself between the two boys. “Wait me being friends with someone other than you is bullshit?”

“Okay Jaime look, enoughs enough,” Euron told him sharply. “Alright I like this girl and this whole possessive ass shit you got going on because of a bet… it’s gotta stop, man.”

Brienne furrowed her brow as she looked between Euron and Jaime. The blonde man’s eyes went wide and a melody of feelings exploded across his face random from fury and anger to fear and terror.

“What bet?” she asked.

“It was so stupid, Brienne; Jaime said he could make any girl prom queen and you were the one picked so if he thinks if he takes you, it’ll help you win.” Euron shook his head in disgust as he turned back towards Jaime. “She’s a good girl and… and people have feelings, Man.”

Brienne swallowed hard as she turned towards Jaime. She didn’t even bother to hide the tears in her eyes knowing it would be a useless endeavor. 

“Is this true?” she asked, her voice trembling. She waited for him to protest, to call Euron a liar, to deny everything, to tell her everything they went through was serious and sincere and not some big joke. 

The longer he stayed quiet the more her anger rose and the hotter her tears became. “Am I a bet?” she demanded. “Am I a bet, am I a FUCKING bet?!” she screamed, shoving him hard and making him stumble. Her father abandoned his place between Euron and Jaime and slid between Brienne and Jaime instead, his eyes that mirrored his daughter’s full of just as much ire and wrath. 

“Yes,” Jaime finally told her, and the tears in his shaky voice were far more rage inducing then anything she ever thought possible. Brienne managed to bite back her sobs long enough for her to throw the stupid little keychain at him, and he didn’t even raise his hands to stop it from hitting his chest and bouncing off. She turned on her heel and raced up the stairs, ignoring her father’s snaring demand that Jaime leave his house  ** _now_ ** _ ,  _ she ignored Podrick calling her name, she ignored everything but the feel of her heart crumbling in her chest.

She was right. From the very first moment she met him she knew it was a joke and a lie but she didn’t listen to herself. She didn’t listen to the small voice inside her that warned that it was all just a cruel prank from the moment he took her to the museum, the same voice that got easier and easier to ignore the longer she and Jaime knew one another. And then tonight… tonight had been the very first night she managed to shut it out completely.

But it was all a lie. Everything; from his soft smiles to warm kisses, to the nickname he christioned her that she began to find endearing and even the invite to prom, it was all just one big joke, it was just another way to humiliate Brienne the Beauty.

She collapsed on her bed and buried her head in the pillow, sobs wracking her entire body. Her lips still tingled where he had kissed her and she could still smell his expensive cologne. Brienne didn’t even move or flinch when her door opened, nor when she felt her bed dip when someone sat on it.

“Brienne?” Eurons soft friendly voice called out to her, setting a warm hand on her shoulder. “Brienne, I-... I’m so sorry, I should have told you what he was doing earlier but you really seemed to like him and I didn’t want to see you hurt.”

She didn’t answer him. She just continued her sobs as he rubbed her back. “If you want me to leave I will,” he told her. “I just… I figured you could use a friend right now.”

Brienne managed to gasp out two words through her tears, “_please_ _stay_,” and then the next thing she knew she was clutching at Eurons shirt and sobbing into his chest while he hugged her and told her over and over that it would all be okay, but all Brienne could think was how wrong she had been. Not just about Jaime but about something else as well.

Turns out there was a way for this day to be ruined…

Please Review 


	8. Chapter 8

_ Hello. You’ve reached Brienne Tarth at 816-555-8967. I’m not available to take your message right now, please lea-. _

_ You want mustard on your burger or just ketchup? _

_ Hang on a second Jaime, I’m trying to record my voice mail greet-. _

_ !BEEEEP! _

“Brienne, it’s me. Again. This is like the thirtieth voice mail I’ve left. Please just talk to me. I wanna apologize, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I like you, Brienne. A lot. I should never have made that stupid bet. Please just call me, or text me or Weirbook me or something. I’m sorry.” 

Jaime hung up with a sigh and flopped back on his bed, quickly clicking back on the tab key, flipping back and fourth from his hundred or so unanswered texts, to his Weirbook messages (she unfriended him not even an hour after Selwyn told him to leave) and then to his call history, hoping to see her name in red signifying he he missed her call. But there was absolutely nothing; no calls, no texts, no anything but a very well deserved silence.

Just as he was about to call her, again, he heard his brothers voice. Jaime looked up and saw Tyrion leaning against the cream colored doorframe.

“Please leave,” Jaime begged his younger, oddly amused, brother. But along with the amusement lighting his face there was a sadness that lingered in the pale green eyes that mirrored their fathers.

“So you won’t believe who I just got off the phone with...” Tyrion said, completely ignoring the request as he walked into the room and headed over to his brothers trophy case.

“Tryion please.”

“Sansa hasn’t called since we broke up last year so I figured it must be important for her to be calling so late at night. So I asked, I said, ‘what's going on, Sansa?’.” Tryion picked up one of the footballs on the desk and tossed it back and fourth. “You can imagine my surprise when she told me a harrowing tale about how my brother pretended to date this sweet decent person, pretended to like her, pretended to be friends with her all because of a bet he made.”

“Please stop,” Jaime begged, being effectively ignored once again. 

“She demanded to know if I knew about it and of course I told her the truth, that I didn’t. Sansa believed me, thankfully because I’m pretty sure she’s gonna kill you come Monday morning, but I made sure to tell her, ‘this doesn’t sound like my brother. My brother would never be cruel to an outsider, he would never humiliate someone who's ‘different’.” Tyrion tosses the football behind him. “She must have you confused with a different Jaime because my brother Jaime is the kind of person to beat the piss out of Aerys Targaryen when he slammed me into a locker after calling me a stunted little imp in tenth grade. My brother would never make someone he cared about feel like a freak for a stupid bet.”

“I get it!” Jaime snapped at the younger Lannister. “Okay I get it, you can stop now!” He fell back on the bed, staring up at the crimson painted ceiling. “I never wanted to hurt her,” Jaime said softly, almost embarrassed of the display of emotions.

“You mean you didn’t want her hurt her after you got to know her,” Tyrion corrected him as he came over and sat on the edge of the bed. “When she was just a tall ugly freak you didn’t know you could have cared less about hurting her.”

The words his brother spoke hurt. More than any words ever had ever hurt before because he knew it was the truth. Jaime didn’t care one iota about hurting Brienne or using her or making her out to be a freak when she was just that; a tall ugly shy beast who did her absolute best to make herself seem as small as possible lest she attract the attentions of people like Cersei and Euron and himself. He didn’t care about hurting the girl that lost her mother and brother when she was young, he didn’t care about humiliating the girl who also wanted to go to Winterfell only she would study archaeology, (“you want to spend your entire career proving historians wrong,” he asked her rather amused one night. “Or right,” she countered as he watched her fill out the application one night. “They work together, Jaime.”) He didn’t realize Brienne the Beauty not talking to him because he screwed up would be a million times more painful than when Cersei broke up with him.

Jaime took a shuddering breath. “I messed up. Big time, and now I don’t know how to fix it.”

Tyrion shrugged. “Maybe you don’t need to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that in 2 weeks you’ll never have to see her again. She’s already accepted admittance at Winterfell U, and you’ll be going to college at Casterly Rock. This’ll all be a horrible memory for her and a mistake to learn from for you.”

Jaime swallowed hard. No… no, that’s not- he didn’t want that. Never seeing Brienne again was the last thing he wanted to have happen, that was the last thing he wanted to think about. He didn’t want to be just a bad memory for her, he wanted to be hers, he wanted to date her, he wanted to get to know her, he wanted to go to school with her and work side by side with her after they graduated… He wanted to feel that light and that happiness and that hope he felt when he was around her for the rest of his life, he wanted someone to be genuinely interested and invested in his tirade on why Alannys Greyjoy would have been a queen that outshined even the short reigned Dragon Queen or the highly respected Queen in the North had Ned Stark and the squid king not driven her to madness, he wanted someone who didn’t sneer and call him a loser BECAUSE he went on a tirade about ancient historical figures long decayed in their graves.

“I don’t wanna not see her again, Tyrion,” said Jaime. “I wanna make this right.” 

Tyrion looked at his brother with a quirked brow. “Were you going to tell her? And be honest, I’ll know if you’re lying.”

“I decided literally three seconds after I kissed her that I was gonna tell her the next day,” he admitted. “I didn’t wanna lie to her anymore.”

Tyrion looked at him for a long moment before he sighed. “You fucked up. Big time, Jaime; you can’t make this right with a phone call or a text, you need to apologize face to face.” 

He hopped off the bed and started towards the door before he looked back at him, making his older brother feel a total of 3 inches tall. Jaime looked down at the bed spread, unable to look at the disappointment and pain and, shockingly, the tears in Tyrion’s eyes.

“Don’t ever hurt someone like me again.”

Tyrion wasn’t asking. He wasn’t telling him either, he was pleading. Because while at first glance you couldn’t find two people more dissimilar, one reminded Jaime of the other. The ‘giant’ and the dwarf, who did their best to hide the pain when they were gawked at but Jaime knew them both well enough to see through Brienne's blushes or his brothers smirks, who both tore themselves down before others could get the chance, who both hoped their best assets (his brothers mind and Brienne's skill with a blade and her infallible sense of decency) would make people look past their physical oddities.

They were both far better then the people who tore them down, they were both far better than the people who said because of their oddities they deserved cruelty and mockery, they were both far better than Jaime.

“I won’t,” Jaime promised, usually cool and confident voice shaking and trembling with tears. Tyrion gave him a curt nod before he turned on his heel and walked out.

The next morning he walked into school as early as he could, well before the parking lots and hallways were crowded, and waited by her locker. The grey metal was covered top to bottom in well wishes, congratulations and general supporters cheering her on for her run as Queen, wishing her luck against Cersei. ‘You Rock’ said one, ‘down with the Lyon!’ said another, and another told Brienne she was far more beautiful than Cersei could ever hope to be if you only counted what really mattered in this race.

As Jaime waited for the tall blonde, spending his time waiting for her to show up by reading the well wishes, and as the halls started to fill with people and sounds, two small arms wrapped around his waist. “Hey you,” a familiar voice purred in his ear.

Rolling his eyes with a heavy sigh, Jaime turned around slowly to face his ex. “What do you want, Cersei?” he asked, making it abundantly clear he was in no mood to talk to her. 

If she heard the annoyance in his tone she didn’t care. Cersei smiles at him, a beautiful dazzling one as bright as the sun with none of its warmth. Not like Brienne's smile. Seeing her rare wide toothy grin was akin to snuggling up close to a fireplace.

“Well I was trying on this dress the other day in Dany’s when I realized we still haven’t finalized our plans for the prom. I mean remember when we were in middle school, we said we would always go together even if we were just friends? I mean you’re gonna be king, I’m gonna be queen...”

“I don’t know if you can tell.” He rapped on Brienne's locker. “But theres no sure bet for you taking home the crown.”

Any smile she wore faded. “Okay well if the entire student body aren’t total idiots; I’m going to be queen. So anyway, I’m gonna send you a pic of the dress and can you please make sure you get a corsage and tie that actually matches it this time? Do you know how humiliating it was to win Homecoming Queen then go to the dance wearing a gold dress with a green corsage?”

“No Cersei, I wasn’t aware how embarrassing it was for you. It’s not like you bring it up every chance you get,” he snapped, letting his annoyance at her dredging up a conversation they had countless times shine though.

“Well I’m sorry but ‘it reminded you of my eyes’ wasn’t reason enough for you not to listen to me! Gods you can be so stupid sometimes.”

“Don’t call me that,” he warned her, the first time he ever fought her when she called him stupid.

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Whatever, Jaime, I don’t even care anymore. I gotta get to class, we’ll talk later.” Cersei gave him a quick kiss to his cheek that he promptly wiped away. “Pick me up at eight, Lover,” she purred before she walked away from him.

Jaime barely had time to comprehend what just happened when someone shoved him, hard, against the locker.

“Asshole!” a voice snarled, and then the next second he felt a bag full of textbooks hit him in the side.

Jaime whipped around towards the assailant, fist made and ready to swing, only stopping himself when he saw the assailant.

He had never seen Pod look so angry. The normally gentle hearted brown eyed boy looked like he was ready to kill Jaime, and he didn’t blame him one bit.

“Pod, please.” He raises his hands in a show of submission. “I’m sorry for what-.”

“For what?” Pod barked. “What are you sorry for, Lannister? For getting caught? For the fact her chances to be queen if she doesn’t go with you go down the drain?”

He shoved him again and Jaime took a step back. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I care about her, Pod, a lot. More than you could know.”

“No!” His voice raised loud enough that people were beginning to stare. “You don’t! You don’t care about her! Someone who cares about someone doesn’t humiliate them or embarrass them or make them think they stood a chance with the all star quarterback just because of a stupid bet!” 

Pod leaned back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You wanna know how I ended up living with Brienne and her dad? We’ve been best friends since the day she got my Darth Ramsey action figure back after a bully stole it from me on the playground a week after she moved here. I was thirteen when my mother left to go get milk at the store, and that was the mast time I ever heard from her. 

It took a week to run out of all the frozen foods in the fridge and on the second day of not eating I finally told Brienne what happened. You wanna know what she did? What ‘Brienne the Beauty’ did, what Brienne the beast did, what the person you assholes call ‘ugly’ and torment every single day, did for me? She took me home and told, not asked, but  _ told _ Selwyn that I was living with them now and then she herself cooked me all of my favorite foods for a month solid.”

Jaime bowed his head, giving Pod a chance to wipe the wetness from his eyes. “That’s what you do to people you care about,” he continued, his voice thick with emotion and tears. “That’s what you do to people you love, which I won’t lie, I thought you did. I told her you looked at her like she was your light and you do, so either you’re either a sociopathic level of liar or you really do love Brienne. But you’re scum, Lannister. You’re trash. You hurt her, all for a fucking bet… you don’t deserve her.”

“I know.” This time it was his turn to have his voice tremble and tears fill his eyes. Pod wouldn’t give him the same courtesy so Jaime was forced to brush away his tears in full view of him. “I know I’m horrible, I but I love her, Pod. I swear it. I know she’s too good for me, I’ve known it ever since the night of the party and she’s just been proving that to me every. Single. Day, over and over and over... I messed up. There’s no excuse. I messed up and now I have to make it right.”

“You can’t.” Pod eyed him with disgust and loathing. “Just leave her alone, Lannister. You hurt her enough.”

Without another word the brown eyed boy stormed off. Jaime was about to take his advice, to walk away, to be just what Tyrion said he would be, nothing but a bad memory for her. He would have, and was about to, when he saw her bowed head above the other students walking towards him. When she accidentally ran into another student, she quickly lifted her head to apologize profusely and almost immediately her wet blue eyes found Jaime’s.

“Brienne!” Jaime called out when she quickly turned and walked as fast as she could away from him. He hurried after her. “Brienne, wait, please!”

“Leave me alone,” she shot back. He followed her out to the parking lot where she made a beeline to her beat up blue car. 

“Brienne! Brienne! Brienne, will you just stop for a second?” He reached and grabbed hold of her hand, bracing for the push that came a half moment later.

“Don’t touch me!” she yelled rounding on him and yanking her hand from his grip. “Not again!”

“You need to listen to me,” he begged. “Please just give me a chance to explain things.”

“Euron explained enough,” she snapped. “You made a bet that you could make ‘Brienne the Beauty’ prom queen.”

“That’s not… I mean yes I did but he-!”

“I don’t care what Euron did or didn’t do!” she shouted. “ _ Euron _ didn’t pretend to be interested in me just to help him win some stupid bet.  _ Euron _ didn’t drag me to that stupid party,  _ Euron _ didn’t give me his jersey to wear so people would see me wearing it the day I was nominated.”

“That wasn’t why I asked you to wear it!” he insisted. 

“Gods, do you ever stop lying?!” 

Her blue eyes, the first thing he noticed as they stood under the streetlights a lifetime ago in front of the museum, the most astonishing eyes he had ever seen, filled with tears and it was a shard of glass to his heart.

“Brienne, please,” Jaime begged, his own voice wobbling dangerously. “Please just listen to me-!”

She cut him off as sharp as a blade. “You wanna know the worst part? The absolute worst part of this?” The first year escaped and then a second. “The worst part… was that I was dumb enough to think that someone might actually be willing to look past my ugliness, my height, my  _ everything _ , and like me for me. I thought I might have a chance to maybe be treated with respect and kindness and be treated like I was… like I was normal, and not just some big dumb freak. And turns out I was wrong.”

His own tears started to fall. “Brienne, please, just listen-.”

“Leave me alone,” she ordered one final time before she stepped into the car and, without a single look back, started it up and drove away.

Please Review! 


	9. Chapter 9

Jaime smoothed out the already wrinkle free and tightly creased tuxedo. It was a handsome burgundy color with a paisley pattern and black lapels he coupled with black satin trousers. The shirt underneath was a crisp sharp white and the bow tie was midnight black.

He hadn’t wanted to go to prom, he wanted to hide in his room and ignore the guilt and pain eating away at him but Tyrion convinced him to go.

“She’ll appreciate the effort,” his younger brother told him several days beforehand. “Besides even if you don’t get the girl in the end it’s your last chance to really party with your friends.”

So here he was; freshly showered and smelling of expensive and subtle orange oil, golden hair slicked back, a hint of scruff on his handsome face, perfectly straight teeth gleaming white... As bad as he felt on the inside, the opposite effect was happening on the outside.

He made his way downstairs to where Tyrion, wearing a custom fitted handsome black suit coupled with a crimson silk tie. Shae stood beside him in a loose fitting floor length dusty rose halter dress and matching ballet flats. The champagne colored corsage Tyrion got her was already secured around her wrist.

“You look beautiful, Shae,” he told the short slender woman before he turned to his brother. “I really screwed this one up didn’t I?” 

“Don’t worry,” Tyrion said, taking his girlfriend's hand. “She’ll be there.” Jaime just managed a sad sort of smile before the three of them headed out to Jaime’s car. 

Once they were on the way while Tyrion and Shae immediately got rather handsy in the backseat, Jaime checked his phone for what felt like the hundredth time that day, finding nothing but a few new messages from Cersei that he would ignore along with all the others she sent him about prom ranging from letting him know the correct color corsage he was supposed to get (DO NOT DEVIATE!’ she added in caps locked letters) to the most recent ones asking where the hell he was. 102 unread messages in total from his ex from the last week but not so much as a ‘hello’ from the girl he actually  _ wanted _ to hear from.

Soon enough he pulled up to the venue, which Jaime had to admit, was decorated extravagantly. Strings of fairy lights surrounded a large crystal chandelier, strips of pale blue and white silk draped artfully from the ceiling, the DJ who had set up space on the stage was blaring an upbeat song and in the middle of the hall was a massive dance floor with dimmed spotlights shining down on the teenage couples and occasional chaperone. Around the edges of the dance floor were round tables covered in soft white tablecloths with sky blue and white flowers in the center of each that eight people a piece.

The second they walked into the venue Shae wasted on dragging Tyrion to the dance floor leaving Jaime alone in the venue. The hall was crowded and dim so even with her unusual height it took a moment to spot her but when he finally managed to, his entire world stopped.

Brienne was wearing a sleeveless dark blue floor length ball gown with a bell style skirt. The bodice was covered completely in silver sparkles and gemstones, which tapered off a quarter of the way past her waist and sparingly decorated the netted layered skirt. A hot pink colored silk shawl covered her broad shoulders and draped across her long arms while on her feet were two plain flats the same sparkling midnight blue of the dress.

It was as if she were wearing the night sky itself. The dark blue of the dress brought out the astonishing color of her eyes and her pale blonde hair was tightly curled and expertly complimented her lightly painted face. A deep blue sapphire surrounded by small faux-diamonds and smaller blue gemstones in the shape of a four pointed star on a silver chain around her neck was her only jewelry 

She was the most beautiful woman Jaime had ever seen. She was the Maiden made flesh, a pure clear night sky alit with diamonds, and she was dancing with Euron Greyjoy.

Not only was she dancing with him but she was dancing phenomenally well, surprising Jaime and judging by the shocked look on Eurons face him as well. Her tall broad figure had no business moving as fluidly or as elegant as it did and her movements flowed with a dazzling grace that took his breath away. 

She was smiling, that glorious wide lipped grin that filled him with warmth, and laughing as she and Euron danced and his heart ached. He should be the one making her laugh and smile, she should be dancing with him, not with a guy who… who treated her the same way Jaime did when they first met.

Taking a deep breath, Jaime started to make his way through the crowd over to her but before he could get close enough to call out her name so she might be able to hear him above the music Cersei was suddenly standing in front of him. Her sheath gown was a sparkling gold halter with a slit that ran midway up her thigh and a deep v in the front that went down an inch or two above her navel. The hemline swept the floor, fanning out dramatically like a cape might have. Her shoes were 6 inch strappy dagger heels, sleek and gold and gorgeous, and a mess of rubies and diamonds on a braided gold chain hung around her neck. 

“I forgive you,” she said quickly with an eager smile, grabbing his shoulders. “Let’s dance.”

Before he could form a protest Cersei was pushing him back into the crowd and then she was dancing on him. Her body was built for sin and she used it for such, grinding on him and running her hands over his chest.

In another life Jaime might have found this incredibly seductive and sensual but now all he could think about how she was too short, too slender, her curves felt excessive… 

He didn’t want Cersei to dance with him, he wanted Brienne. Every moment he wasted not doing exactly that found him more and more irritated.

“Cersei, what are you doing?” he finally asked when a new song came on. It was a slow ballad and rather than answer she simply draped her arms around his neck.

“Come on, Jaime… It’s prom night.” She pressed herself up tight against him, swaying them to the music. She eyed the crimson jacket he wore with distaste, “Even if you didn’t listen to me about anything… it’s still proper for the king and queen to dance together.”

Jaime reached up and gently but firmly removed her hands from around his neck. “Okay I’m sorry but I can’t deal with your shit tonight. I don’t wanna make a scene, I just-.” 

He flinched at the sting of the sharp slap against his cheek. Jaime didn’t even blink as he walked away from the blonde he thought he loved, leaving her standing alone and abandoned in the middle of the dance hall just as she had left him alone a lifetime ago with just as much ease and just as little affection. As he made his way to one of the tables his eyes caught 

Briennes. Her arms were draped around Eurons neck and his hands were on her thick waist as he swayed her to the music but she wasn’t focusing on either Euron or the music. She was looking at Jaime, with not nearly the amount of anger he thought she would have. Instead her expression was one of sympathy and sorrow, and for one brief moment, he thought she smiled at him.

Euron whispered something in her ear that she nodded at and then, with a kiss of her cheek that left her blushing, he walked off towards the restrooms.

Now was his chance.

Before he could even manage so much as a step towards her, Sansa, looking positively radiant in a floor length dark grey transformer skirt overtop a pale white gown with intricate hand beaded swirling designs that twinkled with every moment and sheer sleeves that draped almost to the floor, all but ran over to her, hugging her and talking animatedly with a beaming grin on her face. 

Brienne's blue eyes flickered over at Jaime except this time it was he who smiled at her before he turned and headed off, feeling her eyes on him the whole journey to the silk covered table in the far corner of the dimly lit dance hall.

“Lannister,” a voice called out to him and he turned to find Brandon Luwin, his AP New Dawn history professor, approaching him with a smile. “I just wanted you to know that I heard back from my contact at Winterfell U this afternoon. It’s a little presumptuous but I just wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance there.”

Jaime furrowed his brow in confusion. “I’m… I’m sorry, professor, I never applied there and my grades-.”

“I know you didn’t.” His smile grew. “I applied for you. Brienne Tarth, a few weeks ago, she asked me to use my ‘connection call’ for you instead of her. She told me how much you admired their history program but didn’t think you had the grades to make it in so… I took some liberties.”

“You’re kidding…”

“I’ve never seen a student as invested with wanting to understand and learn about the past as you and she recognized that. You have a very good friend in Brienne, Lannister. Don’t let her go…” Luwin clapped him on the shoulder, smiled and walked away, leaving his thoughts swirling and tears in his eyes...

* * *

_ “ _ Alright, check it out, check it out… Room 409... is about to become a historical landmark.”

“What, are you gonna murder someone there or something?”

“Yeah; murdering some pussy maybe. I’m THIS close to sealing the deal, the dumb bitch is eating up every word I say.” A cruel and heartless snicker. “I never fucked a virgin before… I bet that big blonde slice is gonna be nice and tight for me.”

“You’re wrong for that, Greyjoy. You and Lannister have put that girl through enough already. Besides… Brienne Tarth is not gonna give you any.”

“You wanna make a bet on that, Snow?”

“Aye, because it worked out so well for the last person you made a bet with. I gotta get back to Dany.”

A scoff of disbelief and a muttered, “it’s definitely happening…” followed by a set of footsteps and the sound of a door opening and closing.

Podrick slowly opened the stall door and stepped out, eyes wide and heart pounding. He had to stop Euron, he had to save his sister and his best friend.   
This time, it was Podrick’s turn to save Brienne.

* * *

“Okay people, we’re about to start,” Principal Davos said into the microphone as the music cut off. 

Jaime sighed as he made his way to the front of the crowd that gathered near the stage. Cersei emerged from the crowd and smiled sweetly at Jaime as if she hadn’t just assaulted him thirty minutes prior, taking his arm as if they were lovers. When he tried to pull away her grip tightened and she shot him a look that screamed, in no uncertain terms, he was not to embarrass her.

“We’ll start with the announcement of your 2020 Kingslanding High Prom King.” Davos waited a moment before opened the sleek black envelope and looked down at it. “No surprises here; Jaime Lannister!”

The students and chaperones applauded and shouted and cheered as he made his way to the stage. One of the administrators put a thick grey metal crown on his head and Davos shook his hand but he barely noticed. He was too busy scanning the sea of people for Brienne but the lights shining down on him were too bright and there were so many people that even she managed to become lost in the crowd.

Once the applause died down Davos took the second envelope, this one a metallic pink. “And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for.” He opened the envelope and glanced down at it. “In the closest vote in this schools history… 54% to 46%... Your 2020 Kingslanding High Prom Queen is… Cersei Lyons!”

* * *

Relief. 

That was her first feeling, an odd one to be sure (she should have been sad or disappointed or angry or anything but relief but that was what Brienne felt when she heard Cersei’s name being called. She even smiled a little and clapped politely for her rival as she watched her run up the stage beaming at the prospect of wearing a $3 crown.

Thank Gods this was over… She could put this whole messy business behind her. The bet, the prom, and… and Jaime. 

“That should have been you up there,” Euron told her apologetically. 

She shook her head. “I think the right person won.”

“You wanna get out of here?”

Brienne watched as Cersei pulled Jaime back to her side, for some reason he was trying to make his way off the stage. and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He yanked away and glared daggers at the newly crowned queen.

She nodded, not taking her eyes off the green eyed boy she had fallen for. “Yeah.”

Euron put a hand on the small of her back and with only one last look back at Jaime, the two of them left the crowded venue.

* * *

The applause seemed far less muted than usual for the queen’s announcement, cheers mixed with grumbling and the occasional boo. He watched as Cersei, wearing a beaming grin hurried onto the stage, clutching her heart in almost mocking disbelief as a faux-diamond studded crown was put on her brow. On the corner of the stage he saw Podrick and Sansa motioning him to come down, both of them looking rather panic stricken. He started to walk off the stage towards them but Cersei clutched his arm and pulled him back to her side. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and he yanked his head away, glaring at his Queen.

“Jaime,” Davos said, handing him the microphone. “How about you say a few words?”

He glanced over at a still motioning Podrick and Sansa, gnawing at his lip before he turned back to face the crowd. He had to make sure she heard this, that took precedence over anything else.

“You know, for a lot of us, this is as good as it gets. We aced the test, made the big shot.” He looked over at a smiling Cersei. “Got a crown.” And her smile faded. He turned back to the crowd of people. “But for some of you… these years may have been terrible. They may have been long and hard, filled with hurtful assholes, including me, saying and doing hateful things. For those people out there in that crowd tonight, or for those at home who didn’t have a date or who didn’t have any friends to invite them; it will get better. I promise you, and it will get better because of others who’ve been treated just as unfairly as you. The people who hurt you, trust me… one day they’ll realize what they’ve done. They’ll realize that the outcasts and the nerds and the… and the beasts were and are ten times the person they could ever hope to be. Thank you.”

He handed the microphone to Cersei and hurried off the stage to where Podrick and Sansa were waiting impatiently for him.

“Podrick overhead Euron in the bathroom talking about Brienne,” Sansa said the moment he was within earshot, the three of them completely ignoring the speech Cersei was making.

“He was calling her all these names, insulting her, was bragging about how he was gonna fuck her and how he’s never been with a virgin before,” Podrick spat, utterly and completely disgusted. “He said he's gonna take her to some hotel room.”

Jaime’s heart leapt up into her throat. No. No, Euron couldn’t do that, not to Brienne. Her first time deserved to be special and beautiful and amazing, it deserved to be with someone who loved her, rather that was Jaime or some other lucky soul out there didn’t matter, but Euron would hurt her, not just emotionally either if he was being honest with himself, and she deserved worlds better than that.

“I tried to find her but I couldn’t and then someone said they saw her leave with Euron right after Cersei was crowned,” Podrick continued quickly.

“Fuck,” Jaime hissed as he fumbled in his pocket for his phone.

“I already tried that, her batteries dead,” Sansa told him, panic creeping into her voice.

“Did he say where he was going, what hotel he was registered at?”

“No he just said ‘room 409’.”

Jaime gave the brown eyed senior a curt nod then clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll fix this,” he told him, without a shadow of a doubt in his voice before he turned on his heel and sprinted out of the building, hoping and praying he wouldn’t be too late…

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	10. Chapter 10

Brienne sighed as she trudged up her front steps. This had been a long night already and then Euron had to go and make it a thousand times longer. How could she have been so stupid? She should have seen it coming the moment he pulled up to that stupid hotel but no, she trusted him when he told her he was taking out out to eat and just had to stop by the hotel to grab his wallet. 

Brienne walked in her house and saw her father on the couch with a football game on TV. “Hey, Sweetie,” he called out to her before she could make her escape. “How was the dance?”

“It was fine.” She gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I had a lot of fun.” Brienne started to make her way up the stairs and had to bite back a groan when her father summoned her into the living room. “Dad I’m really tired,” she lied as she made her way around the corner. “I just wanna go upstairs and-.”

And there was Jaime. Standing in her living room.

He was still in his handsome crimson jacket, the metal crown atop his head long gone, trying his best to remain calm but she could see the troubled concern in his brilliant green eyes.

Neither of them spoke. They just stood frozen as they stared at one another.

Selwyn cleared his throat as he stood up from the couch. “Okay, well Pod and Sansa are out getting dinner,” he announced to the two silent teenagers. “They won’t be back for a while and I’m pretty beat so I think I’m gonna go upstairs to bed.” He kissed Brienne on the cheek, wiping away some of her smudged streaked makeup.”Love you, Brie.”

“I love you too, Dad,” she muttered without taking her eyes away from the boy in front of her.

With a curt nod towards Jaime, Selwyn headed upstairs leaving the two of them alone since that night on the beach. Neither of them spoke, neither of them so much as breathed. A heavy silence filled the air and after an unsteady breath Jaime finally broke the spell.

“Are you alright?” he asked her, receiving no answer. Another deep breath. “Podrick told me how he overheard Euron talking about how he wanted to…”

“I just figured out a little late is all… Nothing happened,” she clarified. She almost wanted to laugh at the relief in his expression. “But I um… I bit his ear.”

He quirked a brow at her. “You _ bit _ his ear?”

“I asked him to stop, he didn’t so I… Bit down. I just hope I didn’t cause any permanent damage.”

Jaime’s snicker made Brienne chuckle and he relaxed his rigid shoulders some. “What are you doing here, Jaime?” she asked with none of the anger or bile she imagined herself having when she spoke to him face to face again. “How long have you been here anyway?”

“A while,” he answered. “I called every hotel listed looking for you two, when I couldn’t find out where he was registered I came here.”

Brienne and Euron left right after the crowning, and if Pod told Jaime as soon as he figured it out… “You missed your prom?”

He shrugged, like missing one of the biggest monumental occasions a teenager could have meant as little to him as a piece of gum stuck to his shoes. “Yeah. I had to make sure you were okay.”   
He drew his lip between his teeth as he took another cautious step towards her, and then another, until he was right in front of her gazing up at the tall woman. “I made that bet before I knew you, Brienne. Before I really knew me. Ya know, you made me a better man, you made me a kinder person, a decent person... But if it came down between being the selfish jackass I was and hurting you, or anyone who could have in your position, I would take being the asshole every time.”

“_ ‘I would take being the asshole every time _’... I mean it's no ‘we’ll always have Valeria’ but… it works.” Another soft laugh from him drew forth another shy smile from her. “What was the bet for anyway? I mean what’d you end up losing?”

“My best friend.” Brienne blinked away the sudden tears in her eyes. “She taught me a lot, like how I was a superficial piece of shit who didn’t care about anyone but myself. She taught me to look beyond that, she taught me I can be a decent person if I tried hard enough. Speaking of…”

Jaime reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny Oathkeeper keychain and held it out to her. ‘Prom’ was still written on it in now faded black marker.   
“Here.” She looked down at it, eyes growing rather misty. “It’s yours,” he told her. “It’ll always be yours.”

She sniffed away the tears as she reached out with a shaky hand and took the tiny sword, staring at it for a moment before she looked back at him. “That’s all well and good but you hurt me, Jaime,” she admitted, looking back down at the floor. “A lot. I don’t know how much good some big cheesy romantic gesture is gonna help.”

“I know.” She felt the tip of his finger reach under her chin and lift her head up so she could meet his eyes and see the truth screaming from them. “I know I hurt you Brienne, and I know sorries can only do so much, but I will spend every waking hour for the rest of my life trying to earn your forgiveness and your trust.” The corner of his lips tugged upwards. “Including making big romantic gestures.” In spite of herself Brienne chuckled and the sound made Jaime’s smile widen. “So… can I have the last dance?”

She shook her head. “No.” Before he could look too hurt for too long she grinned and draped her arms around his neck. “You can have the first.”

Jaime laughed as he put his hands in her waist. “And you call me cheesy…”

The two of them swayed back and forth in eachothers arms as one, looking into one another’s eyes, a smooth fluid dance to no sound but each others heartbeat, the best music of all.

“So what now?” Jaime asked as he moved her to the sound of an imaginary beat.

“I go to Winterfell in August to start school,” she told him. “And you?”

The smirk in his emerald green eyes told her the secret she had been trying to keep until it was a sure thing had been leaked. “Well _ someone _ asked one of my teachers to put in a good word for me in that school too.”

“Oh did they?” 

“Mmm. So I’m thinking I’m gonna head up north for college as well. Might major in history, become a historian so I can prove all those future archeologists wrong.”

“Jaime?”

“What?”

“Shut up,” Brienne whispered, leaning down and pressing her lips against his. The kiss was soft and gentle, sweet and slow; the kind of kiss you could only find in the final act of one of those romantic movie she loved to watch. They pulled away and leaned their foreheads against each other, holding one another as tight as they could.

“Jaime?” she asked again in a whisper.

“What?” he breathed.

“About the bet…”

“Yeah?”

“What were the terms anyway?”

Jaime chuckled and when she opened her eyes she saw a smug, self-satisfied look on his face. “You’ll see… I never back out on a bet.”

And Brienne did see two weeks later at graduation. The whole graduating class saw, Podrick and Sansa, Margaery and Jon, Euron who got out of the hospital just in time to attend the ceremony once the infection in his ear cleared up saw… Cersei would have seen too if she had made high enough grades to graduate and wasn’t being held back a year.

Everyone saw him arrive in nothing but his cap and a football to cover what was between his legs, and when he got up from his seat, as dignified and distinguished as a Lannister should be, and tossed Brienne the ball so he could grab his diploma, everyone saw that too, and cheered.

But none so much as the beauty that the beast had fallen in love with.

** _Kiss me! Beneath the milky twilight!_ **

** _Lead me! Out on the moonlit floor!_ **

** _Lift your open hand!_ **

** _Strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance!_ **

** _Silver moon's sparkling!_ **

** _So kiss me..._ **


End file.
